I've had fairly good luck with Brownell's "Dicropan IM", a very non-toxic hot water bluing process. The cheaper the steel, the better and more durable the result. There are some tricks to it, but I have done a lot of handguns.
To do long guns, you need a long stainless steel tank and controllable flame heating source. I don't have that yet.
If you go into conventional salt bluing, there are lots of compounds you can use, but you had better have a wood out building to do it in, and expect all sorts of nearby metal components to be corroded and destroyed. That's why fewer and fewer places do rebluing.
For some handguns and military firearms, I strongly urge anybody to look into parkerizing. It's easy, cheap, most of the raw ingredients come from Home Depot or a pottery supply place, it's non-toxic, and you can do it at home. I've done a bunch. The results are professional and permanent. That's why you are seeing so many phony "original" parkerized ex-military guns at shows.
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