Brownell's rust blue

[Revolvr]

The traditional rust blue does not require pre-heating the metal. The basic steps are:

Prep the metal by stripping any old finish, and polish if needed. Metal prep takes the most time and muscle. I do most all by hand.

Apply the rust blue solution
Allow to rust a couple of hours. I built a rusting box for this.
Boil to turn the rust to black
Card it with steel wool and a carding brush (also from Brownell's)
Degrease again if needed (not needed with Laurel Mtn)

Then the whole process is repeated 3-5 times. I have found 4 works well. Gets in to diminishing returns after a while.

Then I let it sit 24 hours or so, then oil it.

Below is a photo of the work in progress after rusting before boiling.

-- Dan