Rust Blue and Evaporust

[mrerick]

Hi Ronald, and welcome to the forum.

Recently, a very good article on Rust Bluing was published on this forum:

http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthre...ight=rust+blue

It shows a member's experience rust bluing for the first time.

I believe you'll find that the metal surfaces have to be in the white, and absolutly clean (free of any dirt, oils or other contaminants) prior to starting the rust blue process. I don't know the effect of "Evaporust". This is an article that discusses it's characteristics:

http://www.evapo-rust.co.nz/How%20It%20Works.htm

This article states:

"After treatment, the part can be water rinsed for painting, plating, or other type of corrosion protective coating. If left un-rinsed, the fluid will dry on the treated surface to a hard, short-term corrosion resistant coating with no corrosion removal properties."

I checked out the web, and found writeups about it. It is a "Chelation" agent that chemically combines with iron oxides, and then is supposed to go into solution. This discussion gets into the details:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/a...p/t-69793.html

They speculate that it contains "ethylenediaminetetraacetate or EDTA". or "EDDS ethylenediamine NN Disuccinic acid". In either case, the iron oxide apparently ends up in compound as a residue, which is what you may be seeing on the metal surface.

Apparently, molasses can do the same kind of chelation, but is less selective (affects more than steel).

According to this study, once metals are chelated, they are very difficult to remove from waste water.

So... the surface of your metal may have chelated iron oxide on it. I'm not sure how to remove it after it dries, but you might try washing it again and drying it immediately.

As to rust bluing, I'd do some experiments on something other than your pistol first. Use the evapo-rust. Let the surface dry. Wash it. De-oil it and try rusting the steel per the article.

Marc