Patina Finish

[sheepherder]

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.