Rust Bluing Results

[dnickels]

Here are some pics with darker background. The first ones are not intended to be final photos; I took them at my desk.






In the pics the barrel looks a little grey or cloudy but that is just light.

As I mentioned above, the Mark Lee Express Blue is available from Brownell's. The product comes with a lengthy instruction sheet, but the process is fairly simple and straight forward.

Items needed:

distilled water
degreaser - I used Super Clean, and then some Dawn dish soap
carding brush/stiff wire brush/steel wool/Dremel bristle brush
soft wire to suspend parts while boiling
pot to boil parts in
cotton and plastic gloves
cotton gun patches, bits of old cotton tee shirt etc


First you clean the parts and do any polishing or whatever, as necessary. Then degrease the parts. Pretty much all of the work you do is done wearing gloves to prevent oil contamination from your hands. Any tools and items like steel wool and bristle brushes should be degreased too, ahead of time.

Heat the parts a bit. I use a small propane torch and just a couple quick passes does the trick. You want to still be able to hold the parts (with plastic gloves). A heat gun would work too.

I use small cotton gun patches to apply the rust blue solution. You want the patch just damp and not wet. Apply the bluing acid in long strokes down the part. You don't want tuns and drips so you aren't blobbing it on very heavy. Almost instantly you get a bright light rust all over the part, especially if its humid.

When dry, repeat with two more coats using heat to make sure it dries almost on contact with the warm part.

Let the gun part(s) sit a few minutes, then take the parts and boil in distilled water for two minutes. I used some fine wire to support the part. Small parts will be boiled in a little metal strainer. You can plug the barrel bore with corks. The bright rust turns dark in the water.

Take the parts out of the water. Because of the heat, the warm metal will dry very quickly. Using a wire brush, card or burnish off the rust, leaving a smooth, glossy, metallic finish. The first time the part will be sort of a pewter grey. Each application of the acid, along with a boiling and carding, turns the finish darker. I used 5-6 applications here. I may try a couple more. The instructions recommend 6-10 but how many you use will vary on the type of metal etc. Since you seal the part with oil when you are done, I would need to clean it well before I start the process up again.

I felt that it would be best to oil the part up when I was finished on the first day just to prevent any possible future rust since I knew I was not going to be able to get back to it for a day or two.

The new finish is much better than this...