A Reblue Comparison~

[Olle]

Originally Posted by John Sabato

Actually Eric, just the opposite... the whole gun starts out white unfinished steel. Then the rust bluing was applied discreetly to each part leaving the white exposed (internal surfaces) where it was thought it wouldn't matter that bluing wasn't applied. VERY labor intensive!

So do the salt blued Lugers have these bare surfaces? Salt bluing is a dip process, so they should end up blued inside and out. I only have rust blued Lugers so I don't have anything to compare with. Then again, "I have read on the Internet" that some salt blued Lugers had galling problems due to the tight tolerances, and that they had to leave the bluing off of some bearing surfaces. If they did that, it would be interesting to know how it was done.

Anyway, I have been wondering about that white metal for quite a while, it seems like it would be almost impossible to get such crisp lines without masking it off or polishing after the bluing. I have rust blued several guns, but despite my best efforts, I always end up with some bluing where it shouldn't be. This makes me wonder how they did it in a production setting. Seen from a time saving perspective, it would make sense to do some final polishing after bluing if you want that effect.