Am I missing anything?
 

Ok I want to double check everything before I begin doing this. I have a digital scale that is certified accurate to .01 grams and a 500 gram certified calibration weight, I have Brownells rust blue that should be here later today, I have 1 pound of 99.9% pure sodium nitrate that I hope will be here Saturday at the latest, I also have a brand new box of nitrile gloves and I have 1 shiny polished Luger.

I have to go to the store to get a gallon or 3 of distilled water and 0000 steel wool but I think thats it, am I missing anything?
Acetone to clean the steel wool will be got from the wife nail polish collection. ;)

I also have the cleaner from the Blue Wonder kit that didn't really blue the gun but grayed it. I plan to clean the gun first with a product called Brake Kleen to get all the oil off the gun and then follow it with the Blue Wonder gun cleaner making sure not to touch anything.

Thoughts, suggestions, comments, ideas as you all know I am open to any of the above as this is my 1st try at rust bluing and I so don't want to screw it up.

Thank you all as always and wish me luck!

Be careful of the nail polish remover as some of them contain oils. You might just want to spring for a small can of acetone to be safe.

Ditto what Ron said....use pure solvent grade acetone available at Lowe's or Home Depot....also, dont forget to degrease the INSIDE of all the parts.....once you start the boiling cycles, the oil and grease in all those crevaces will float off into your distilled water ....not good! A good way to do it is with a toothbrush, hot tap water and a good dose of Dawn dishwashing liquid....the stuff really breaks down oils. Then finish your degreasing with acetone inside and out.

Awesome guys thank you.

Have you guys ever heard of Brake Kleen? It comes in an aerosol can and removes oil, grease, and just about any kind of crud you an think off of cars brake rotor and leaves no chemical residue. I was wondering how it would do but I guess I'll just stick with the tried and true method.

The Harley mechanic I use squirts brake cleaner to clean off an area to check for oil seepage afterwards, but I've seen him use it as a general cleaner. A subsequent polishing with a clean rag leaves what I presume is a totally clean surface. But then again, he's not going to blue the part. So I'd be careful, as with the nail polish remover, to check that the proprietary formula does not contain any oily or silicon based ingredients. The acetone from Lowe's, etc, is cheap, in stock, and you're set to go without questions of purity.
I have some aerosol gun cleaner/blaster, which pretty much removes the lube, but it won't replace the toothbrush for the crud in the tight areas and corners. It smells like oranges, so there is probably an orange oil component to it; because of this and the slight haze of residue it leaves, I'd not use it as the final pre-blue prep--maybe use it first, then brush/scrub with hot water and Dawn, then the acetone bath. The advantage to pure acetone is that it evaporates completely. It is slightly hydrophyllic, which means that it mixes with any water left well enough that it takes the water with it when it dries, which is virtually instantaneously. This is how laboratory glassware is dried after it's washed clean. If you detect any residue after this point, re-clean; the residue will not be that of the acetone, but of contaminants you missed the first time.

DP

What is sodium nitrate for. You going to do slow rust bluing - right?

I read the sticky for rust bluing and it is recommended to mix in sodium nitrate to give it more of a blue black finish then the brown black finish the rust bluing formula by itself makes. All I know is I want my Luger to have the same finish as the ones pictured in the sticky!

Ah, I see. But formula is fun, it lists
Hydrogen Chloride 2X ? I am confused HCL is gas.

It is meant to mean hydrochloric acid.

Known as muriatic acid. But why two different concentration in same formula?

I was just getting ready to type in the same question. It is kind of moot since the Brownells solution is already mixed, but it is interesting.

I have no idea on any of I'm only following the instructions on the sticky. I'm just waiting for the sodium nitrate now.

Acetone is a perfect solvent. Great cleaner and degreaser with no residue.

-ML

Getting about a gallon of it tomorrow.

Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber is a pretty good cleaner, but it's probably just aerated acetone.

Well my sodium nitrate won't be here for almost another WEEK! Seems the place I ordered it sent it "smart post" which means Fed Ex brought it to their main hub AN HOUR AWAY FROM MY HOUSE only to take it to West Virginia to drop it off at the post office. So where I could have jumped in my car and driven an hour to go get it now it won't be here till THURSDAY! I don't get it its so close but its gonna take the mail man another week to get it here? Is he traveling on foot?

You coulda just made some from drugstore Cold Paks and baking soda like I did, but then again, I'm cheap :-)

Had I known I could have done that I would have. :crying:

Sounds like alchemy to me.:) How do you do that?

It's pretty straightforward, Ron....you get the first aid cold paks from CVS, etc.....check ingredient list, most are just pure ammonium nitrate, that's what you want. Weigh the amount in the pack, dissolve it in water and filter through a coffee filter. Take an equal amount of baking soda by weight, mix together and boil OUTSIDE on the hot plate or such ...it gives off a bunch of ammonia gas, but this will dissipate after awhile and once nearly all the water is boiled off, take your sodium nitrate out and let it dry fully. You can test the success of the reaction by mixing a small amount with 1/3 as much sugar and lighting it...it should burn fairly energetically with a yellow/orange flame.