Some of our old handguns have had the blue or even the bare metal oxidize over the years to a brown or gray color, generally called 'patina'.
I copied this down from a repeat episode of
"American Restorations" on cable TV. Rick Dale owns a restoration business in Las Vegas and will undertake to restore anything.
There are little clips in each episode where he asks a question about restoring and answers it. One such clip was on the 'patina' metal finish.
I was too slow to record it, but I copied it down as best I could remember it. Here it is -
How do you restore/match a patina finish [on steel]???
Do you use -
(1) Salt water
(2) Vinegar
(3) Lemon juice
(4) Any of the above
The answer Rick gave was:
"(4) Any of the above.
Heat the metal gently, spray any of the choices on, and let sit outside".
Rick didn't specify a specific heat or source, or how long to let it sit outside. (Overnight?)
Now, I had posted the same question here some time back, and George Anderson gave much the same instructions, except using urine for the chemical. I used George's instructions to 'patina-ize' a Luger barrel and two nickel Mec-Gar Luger magazines. George's method proved satisfactory.
I'll offer it here as a 'guide', as I haven't used Rick Dale's 'chemicals' but I would expect that they may each provide slightly different surface finishes.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?t=29088
Try it at your own risk.
