refinishing
 

Hello experts

This may sound extraordinarily naive, but here goes anyway. I have a shooter with no pretensions of being a collector's piece, as its surfaces are anything but perfect and its numbers quite assorted. Can a novice at refinishing (smoothing and blueing), but with lots of time and patience, refinish a Luger himself and get a decent result? Or at least do the smoothing himself?

Thanks!
Jeff

Yes, although I have a "Mentor", I have been refinishing firearms for over 30 years, and have had excellent results, especially with my first Luger, a shooter.......................Contact me at sinterklause@aol.com, and I will tell you how I did mine, and try to e-mail you pics of the results...........
Chris

No matter how much advise you take regarding self-refinishing of a firearm, I would suggest that you perform a lot of practice on something other than your intended Luger until you feel you are proficient in creating the surface you want your Luger to look like... You can only do the Luger ONCE... but a bar of 4140 steel (probably obtainable on ebay for a couple small pieces) can be used for your learning experience... Don't chance your Luger parts until you are sure you want to inflict restoration on it's parts :D

Just my http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/02cents.jpg

thanks!

Jeff

Jeff, see if you can borrow a copy of Bradford Angiers "Firearms Blueing and Browning " from your local Library. It is excellent information for the task you are setting yourself.

Heinz told me about this book several years ago, I found one on ebay or my grandfathers basement and either bought it or appropriated it. (my grandfather was living in a "home" by then)


Ed

Yes, Mr. Sabato is totally correct! I would make sure it has no collector value, before I did ANYTHING to it! You can get a piece of steel at a Lowes, machine shop, or scrap metal place, to practice on, first. As I said, I have experience, but it came with a few "foul ups"!!!! Your Luger doesn't want to be your practice piece.......If it is to be just a shooter, a good start would be a "cold blue" kit, to give it a decent finish, and to keep it from rusting. Afterwards, you will still need to have a light coat of oil on it when storing it. It cost's a lot to have a firearm blued, or browned, by a pro, and it is not an easy task, mostly due to the cost of chemicals, and such. but the cold blue is an easy fix, if the weapon doesn't have collector value. The main thing is, to remove as little metal as possible, and to try to leave as much of the markings as possible. Do not strip it yourself, and then send it to be refinished, as a lot of factors affect the process, such as the humidity, etc, and it can rust very fast while waiting to be done! Mine was purchased as a shooter, so it didn't have any value other than as a normal firearm, although it still has all of it's markings, as precise as the day they were stamped.The best way to remove any rust spots, and the remaining finish is with 000, or 0000 steel wool. Anyway, once you touch it, it loses any hidden value. I would make certain of it's value, first, before starting on it!

I searched amazon.com and found this one. The book name matches, but the author is R. H. Angier..... Is this the right book? Thanks.

That is the book. My memory must be a letter off

I checked when I got home, it is on the title page

R.H. Angier, Graduate Engineer, Liege University and Arms Technician
Copywrited in 1936.

I have used the book occasionally for over 40 years myself. I used to do a lot of browning on muzzle loading rifles, his forrmulas were the best I came across.

How exactly good are the cold blue kits? Have people had good experiences going them on larger parts/areas? What type of preparation is needed? Any sanding/polishing?

Polishing correctly, with the proper grit and not changing angles, rounding off edges or going too deeply is the first step to a good rust blue. Cleanliness and the proper chemicals and techniques will also be critical. Practice on scrap, spare or broken parts to master the technique before trying it on the gun. Herter's Rust Blue from Brownells or Midway is a good one to use. Make sure you use distilled water to boil the parts in the rust blue process.

I tried "Classic Rust Blue" agent from Brownells and reblued a P-1 magazine (for fun). I followed the instruction and it worked. There are only two problems in the end result: maybe I repeated the process too many times (5 times), the 'blue' generated really appeared to be black, and did not show those old gun's grey-blue blended color under light. Another problem I found... I did slight sanding before bluing, the the "Walther" banner became blurred in the end result.

Some fun though.

I have repeated the process as many as 10x to get the right color so, 5x might not have been enough. Did you use a mild stainless steel wire brush? Sometimes over sanding and using brushes with steel that is too hard can cause details to get fuzzy. Boiling too long can also cause the blue to appear black, but give it time to "age" as it will mellow to a blue grey over the years.

Yes, "Carding", I used 0000 steel wool. I also reblued a screw driver (came with a CAI Nagant revolver), and found "Russian Steel" was way harder to blue than "German Steel".... I cannot even remember how many times I had to repeat for that screw driver..... probably 10-15 times. Finally, it turned into black as well, which is the "correct" color for CAI guns, I was so happy.

Rust bluing if done right with patience can yield some awesome results that can be surprising. I did a Webley MkVI that looks almost factory fresh now that it is re-rust blued. I am going to look for a shooter grade near 0% finish Luger to try sometime soon.