I have actually tried a toaster oven, "baking" the parts in sand. The problem I had was that this particular oven couldn't reach the temperature needed to even get a straw color. Had the parts in there for an hour or two on full blast, but all I got was a very pale yellow. I used a $25 Walmart cheapo that I actually bought for this very purpose, but ended up getting mad and trowing it away. So does it take a higher quality toaster oven, or did I just get a dud?

You may have had the bad luck to get a bad unit. The mark I made on the dial for where "Straw" happens in the oven is a lower temperature than the notch for heating a TV dinner, or re-heating a plate of food. For blue/black, I didn't use the sand, but set it on the highest setting and let it run for half an hour or so. Pics below of straw and blue, thanks to Black and Decker's $35 t.o.

1 more

No reason not to use the "real oven" in the kitchen.

Strawing makes no odor, it only takes about 400-420 degrees.

Getting to 600 for the bright blue.may/ would be a little tough, would need a heat treating oven for that-or a torch. The blue has a much smaller temperature band to achieve the blue color, which is why the salts work well if controlled to exactly 600 degrees.

One could do the same thing with any media that was inert to the metal at 600 degrees.

A great candidate for reblue:

http://www.simpsonltd.com/product_in...ducts_id=44753

It's a great project base gun. Only the blue was damaged. Reblue work can be done at home, no metal work needed.

I did not check Simpson everyday. Missed it. Someone got it.

A friend of mine called me yesterday and asked me if I could reblue it. Then he called again and said that he missed it by one minute. :rolleyes:

I saw it last night, almost bought it, but unlike Alvin-
I could not do it at home!:eek:

Nice pistol, deserved a professional re - rust blue; a few of you can/will do it.

Ollie does nice work for sure.

Paying to get it done would put one in a high cost position for a
"re-blue", JMHO.

Update: The spring kit arrived today. The mainspring was not included in the kit and the firing pin springs seems to be ok, so I only replaced the recoil spring.

I started with a few single shot exercises, and everything worked great. It went bang, the recoil and action movement "felt right" and the shells flew straight up and landed between me and the gun. Loaded up with two rounds, and if fed, fired and ejected like it should. After that, I loaded 5 rounds and set up a target at 15 yards. It shot a little to the left and stringed about 3" vertically, and I figure a lot of this has to do with me. This thing is not exactly a target pistol, the sights are decent but the grips are (mildly put) funky and the balance is not all that great either. It was getting dark so I had to abort right there, and I'll probably try it on a sand bag next time to see what it can do with less "excited user input".

I'd say that you need a lot of practice to be able to shoot this gun well, but at least I know that it does work! :rockon:

No. It's not in high cost position. Almost all C96 that you can get under $1000 is either a mix number, or horrible bore, or both.

Salt blue pistol, it's easy to hot dip it. Or, boil it in "melted stump remover". Very low cost, and an super nice shooter. What else you can buy with $800....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_IeMl6R8fc

I fired a dozen or so C96s. Only one had extraction issue, due to the chamber was too poor, the case expanded in firing and could not be extracted out completely. All other worked perfectly.

I am practicing firing this gun single hand. I find keeping two eyes open, that's give better sighting and works better.