For the final step, we let the components cool down in water displacing oil. Every true outdoorsmans dream! Color case hardening is the predecessor of all metal coloring typically employed in the firearms industry. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! For the chemical, the bluing solution should be either Oxynate No. Note: I know a plastic container is pictured but always use a metal one! How do I harden a steel hammer so that is lasts longer and is more durable? 4 years ago I wish this article had come out sooner, since I did not know that 0000 steel wool may have oil in it. Hot bluing should never be attempted on aluminium, as it reacts it usually dissolves in the caustic salt bath. If you have very light, fine pitting, you can polish this out. The parts must be observed constantly for colour change. Metal Finishing Guru. ", not only fun, but also profitable. Youll want to clamp on the barrel directly under the sight youre about to drift out. They are still sometimes used by gunsmiths to obtain an authentic finish for a period gun of the time that rust bluing was in vogue, analogous to the use of browning on earlier representative firearm replicas. If youre using acetone to de-oil, dont be afraid to do it more than once. I have to finish my M76 and Galil first and buy the materials. Bluing, being a chemical conversion coating, is not as robust against wear and corrosion resistance as plated coatings, and is typically no thicker than 2.5 micrometres (0.0001 inches). I now want to reverse the process so I can drill and tap the metal tip. High temperatures and dangerous chemicals mean that a moment of carelessness can make you pay a heavy price. And for the next (after the next) installment, how to do hard case coloring. They melt at, oh, somewhere about 280F. At 700, you start losing your blues and the steel starts becoming a wispy silvery-blue, not a dark brilliant blue. Fill a heat-safe container with water or oil deep enough to submerge your steel. I pulled the temp off the top of my head. Wait for 10 15 minutes and then take out the components. The steel will pull some of the carbon out of the oil while quenching and harden the outer portion of the metal. Keep a grade B fire extinguisher nearby in case of a fire. If you tempered the steel with a blow torch, set the metal on an anvil or another large steel surface to conduct the heat. It greatly helped me to learn how to blue a gun perfectly at home. Oh mas oui.Express blueing, slow rust blueing, hot salt blueing, nitre blueing, carbona blueing all are better than cold blueing. Reply The rod was heated and the plate 2" square was inserted and the rod shrunk onto it. RF: Expect a write-up from me on Rust blueing and parkerizing in the next couple of weeks. 3 years ago How to Blue Bluing Steel Using Oven Or Torch and Oil Method. For more information on using a blowtorch and protecting the steel, scroll down! OK, now with the sights out and the trigger group off, you can put on the rust/blue remover on the barrel/action. I want to add rainbow color to safety razor blades that would be used again, how can I do this? 3D Printed Futuristic Space Age Wall Clock. Another good test for determining when the steel is ready is seeing if a magnet sticks to its surface. The ideal setup is a pair of long sleeve gloves along with splash goggles and a face mask. Right now I'm working on excavator replacement pins! Youll have a hot caustic degreaser tank (about 10 minutes), then a cold rinse tank, then into the hot salts for, oh, 15 to 20 minutes, then out into the hot rinse, then into a cold running rinse tank, then into a water displacing oil tank for 20 minutes or so. However, there are certain characteristics differences between the materials so knowing clearly how to blue stainless steel is really important. As I'm bluing round pieces I slowly and evenly rotate the piece over the flame to equally disburse the heat. Use a backing block of wood or even a Pink Pearl rubber eraser. Submerge in water and scrape edge. Higher carbon contents will take longer to heat. Thoroughly degrease the area to be reblued with acetone. For most of the time, guns that utilize carbon steel components are the prime candidates for bluing but its totally possible to color stainless steel blue as well. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 4. Once you get the colour you want, go outside to your oil container and fully quench your object into the oil!Note: I know a plastic container is When you add water to a hot salt tank, you get an explosion of steam, and you need to develop some skill in adding the water with a very fine copper pipe on your water hose to prevent steam blow-outs spattering salts all over you. LOGIX 20910 Butane Torch, Cooking Torch, Torch for Creme Brulee, Refillable, 9.6 oz, Blue Steel . Rust bluing was developed between hot and cold bluing processes, and was originally used by gunsmiths in the 19th century to blue firearms prior to the development of hot bluing processes. 2 years ago Copyright 2023 Flixsterz. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. Drop a piece of hot charcoal in it and it will burn in the absence of any atmosphere as the nitrate provides the oxygen for the reaction. Then the crucibles would be removed from the furnace and placed over boiling hot water and air would be bubbled through the water and the parts would be dropped into the water. You can then use a soft brush to gently remove all the residue of the cleaning solution on the components. "image": { http://cdn.spectrumbrands.com/~/media/Spectracide/Files/MSDS/SpectracideStumpRemoverGranulesSDSApr15.ashx. This signifies that the steel is tempered. Colour case hardening occurs when soft steels were packed in a reasonably airtight crucible in a mixture of charred leather, bone charcoal and wood charcoal. This process leaves a deep blue-black finish. 1. Enjoy! The higher temperatures of the other processes as well as their caustic nature could weaken the soldered joints and make the gun hazardous to use. You can use a heat gun, a blow dryer, or a torch for this. WebThe gun bluing process Start with 1 gallon of water and add it to a deep fryer that has been thoroughly cleaned. Both ingredients are super cheap. Wipe them down with WD-40 on a regular basis. Next, suspend the components in a cleaning solution tank to get rid of dirt, oil, grease, and crud. Youll get a dark spot right there. Itll take perhaps 20 minutes to really dry down. Once you strip the blue & rust, then you can see what youre dealing with. Pour in some acetone, and while wearing rubber gloves (dishwashing gloves are OK), put in a pad of 0000 steel wool, swish it around and pull it out. Add in the 250F+ temperatures of the salts when they hit your skin, and youre both burned thermally and chemically in seconds. It is slow rust blueing. it washes off with water. Just take them from the comments he posts. Go on and start bluing! Theres nothing wrong with your method, but is is very hazardous, especially to people who have never done anything like it before. In the hot salt process, you will need, oh, four to six tanks, only one of which will be the heated blueing salts. It is one smoooooth profile, from one end to the other. 4 years ago The actual temperature of the steel depends on the carbon content inside. NaOH will quickly and completely dissolve aluminum. Black iron wire You will need black iron wire to tie around any object you If your barrel has heavier pitting, now were into filing to remove pitting, and thats something I cant teach people in mere text. It's worth noting that there can be some additives in motor oil that release hydrocarbons when burnt which is a known carcinogens to the body (in other words: Bad Stuff!). All blued parts still require oiling to prevent rust. COPYRIGHT 2021, THETRUTHABOUTGUNS.COM. You will get it. Glad that there are folks like you around. The robot gives the steel valve seat a quick blast with liquid nitrogen and drops the seat right in place. Use your torch to bring up Metal parts that look black or blue-black are usually blued (rather than painted). If I remember right they then heated them up a bit and applied fish oil orignal and I think latter switching to linseed oil to protect the finish and give it that wet look. Depending on the manufacturers manual, youll have to prepare roughly 6 to 8 tanks to perform the bluing effectively and efficiently. Hot blueing salts attack soft solders on guns, so it isnt to be done on old shotguns and some older rifles. At the end of this heating process the crucible is removed from the oven and positioned over a bath of water with air forced through a perforated coil in the bottom of the bath. Be patient in the first few minutes as the metal needs to reach the temperatures where it changes colour! It's easy to get it too hot, too quickly - especially with an O/A or oxy-propane torch. I really appreciate you taking the time to share it DG. Besides those, you must also have water displacing oil and cleaning solution (Dicro-Clean 909). They have their place, but doing a whole gun with them isnt that place. In comparison, rust, the red oxide of iron (Fe2O3), undergoes an extremely large volume change upon hydration; as a result, the oxide easily flakes off, causing the typical reddish rusting away of iron. 3. Now you can start.Apply heat to your object and heat up gently and equally. As I'm bluing round pieces I slowly and evenly rotate the piece over References Great column, and thanks for all the responses to various questions and comments. Old school smiths use something called washing soda to strip oil off guns. If you are referring to torch bluing, the just fyi, the old school method of case hardening steel is to get the piece so hot that a magnet will no longet stick to it and quickly quench it in used motor oil. Hot. Even with safety glasses and a full-face shield, a rubber apron, rubber boots, etc it is possible to get salts into your eyes and all over the rest of you. You heat the outside member only when you do a shrink fit.). For larger pieces of steel, you need to use a. If the magnet doesnt stick, its ready to be pulled away from the heat. I think DGs method is a lot safer than mine. Cold blueing is OK for touchups, at best. Safety is the number one priority so protect your body as much as possible. Also buffing wheels pre blue. "https://theshootingmystery.tumblr.com/", After Alternatively, you can press the pad of steel wool between your hands over the container of acetone, and then put it on some paper towels to dry. In my case I drilled/threaded the metal piece and made a holder with a threaded end. The "turning blue" process has nothing to do with hardening of the steel, or its compression. Ive used this method in a pinch to make a tap from a cheap mild steel bolt to chase out galled female threads. Just let any residual matter evaporate/dry. To temper the steel so it isn't brittle, place it in an oven heated to 375 F for 3 hours, and then it let it cool overnight. Its durable and wears well. Be careful since considerable heat might be generated in the process. These work by depositing a coating of copper selenide on the surface. (NaOH from Ebay soap supplies). Heat the Steel. Then remove it from the degreaser, don't be tempted to wipe it off with anything. Its nice when something can be re-used a time or two, especially when used in diversified ways. In this case cooking oil, rather than gun oil, acts to displace water and prevent rust. Then you pull it out and scrape off the oil along the blade edge. Craig, torch bluing is a real thing that has been use a lot in the custom gun world, mostly for screw heads but even for complete muzzle loader creations ( the vendor will be quite proud of his work it seems as cost increases considerably to a finished item). Rinse them in a cold water tank after. -A heat source. Hot bluing is the current standard[6] in gun bluing, as both it and rust bluing provide the most permanent degree of rust-resistance and cosmetic protection of exposed gun metal, and hot bluing takes less time than rust bluing. Your tanks better be tight, your stands for the tanks better be rigid, youd better have top-of-the-line fire extinguishers (NB the plural) available to you. This item: Special Blue Full Metal Butane Torch (Gold) - Refillable Flame Lighter- Culinary Torch - Welding Torch - Adjustable Dual Flame for Desserts, Creme Brulee, BBQ and Baking. As mentioned, cold bluing can be done at room temperature with decent results. Mea maxima culpa - and I left my comment up rather than delete the thread (for now) just so I could reply and admit the My Dumb, rather than skulk away cleanly >;-), Question Also: Do not allow the solution to run, drip or sag. Spray down the whole barreled action with copious amounts of WD-40, inside and out. Bluing is also used for providing coloring for steel parts of fine clocks and other fine metalwork. Dont pour water in to your bath! Mess. I have always wondered about storage in gun soft cases or the foamed Hard cases, and humid or dry, heat and cold. This is not necessary as long as you can hold your item appropriately and not cover where it is to be heated. After three coats, washing and drying, the finish was not too bad, considering I was (and am) a rank amateur. Not every manufacturer puts bittering agents in the solution and as one poison control nurse told me: (t)here is nothing you can do and it aint the good death.. One of the reasons I hand-polish up to 600 and buff only above that is that when you see one of my barrels (by holding it up to a light source, and sighting down the barrel from the muzzle at your eye to the breech out at arms length), you see no dips, waves, ripples, etc. Im not responsible for marital discord as a result of gun projects attempted on the kitchen stove. It is hazardous. By signing up you are agreeing to receive emails according to our privacy policy. . When Im polishing on barrels, I polish lengthwise. Degrease a pad of 0000 steel wool with acetone. This will keep the bluing from adhering to the sharpened edge. Technically speaking, bluing is more or less a conversion of red iron oxide (Fe2O3) to black iron oxide (Fe3O4). Heating up a tank on the kitchen stove. Safety is the number one priority so protect your body as much as possible. It is vastly appreciated even by those of us who will probably never use it. Do NOT wipe/touch your metal with anything after degreasing as the whole purpose of cleaning was then for nothing. The downsides are: the safety issue, which I laid out above, and which youve made clear. "height": "800", Make sure the piece is chemically clean, sandblasting followed by power wire brushing is good then stop heating when you hit purple because the heat will travel. Black oxide provides minimal protection against corrosion, unless also treated with a water-displacing oil to reduce wetting and galvanic action. It is usually sold in a 1lb bottle for $3, you'll need 3 or 4 pounds probably. And thats about everything you need to know about stainless steel bluing. *700F is very close to the heat treatment temperature of some steels. All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. Whats the difference between Brown Express and Blue Express? Fume bluing is another process similar to rust bluing. It is caused by a layer of oxide that forms when the steel is heated. The content is not meant to be a replacement for professional service advice. Being prepared is important if you can not measure the temp. There can be different layers you have to apply. Though it may seem tricky at first, youll be glad to have figured it out because knowing how to blue stainless steel will come in handy from time to time. The loose oxide was then carded (scrubbed) off, using a carding brush - a wire brush with soft, thin (usually about 0.002in (0.051mm) thick) wires - or wheel. -something to hold your object with i.e. The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. kitty litter (I would recommend the unused variety). He has more than three years of experience writing for and working with wikiHow. Hi SteelJunkee Method is as follows: Fit rod into drill and set at constant speed Clean rods with acetone on clean rag Use butane and propane mix blow torch to achieve colour range Quench in water Dry The weird thing is that they look great for around 4-5 days then deteriorate. In place of using a hot bath (although at a lower temperature) chemically induced method, it is possible through controlling the temperature to heat steel precisely such as to cause the formation of black oxide selectively over the red oxide. Fill the tank with a suitable amount of water then add in the bluing salt using the correct ratio. You are a fantastic resource for all of us here. One can generally use the same solution to brown as to blue. The parts are then boiled in distilled water, blown dry, then carded, as with rust bluing. You want 0000 steel wool for carding between coats. Next you hold it in front of your heat source until a blue oxide layer covers the whole blade edge. This is as deadly as the lye-based hot salts, but more for the temperature of a large batch of salts. What is your opinion of the 2 to 1 lye and potassium nitrate bluing solution? It was left in a flannel gun case in the back of a moist closet for 25+ years. Just remove the blue/rust, degrease, dry, then blue/card/boil-out/oil/drain. By the time I was done it looked like it was a beat up 5 year old gun rather than a 1930s bolt .22 that came from a scrap yard. Todos los derechos reservados. Similarly, stainless steel parts may be immersed in a mixture of nitrates and chromates, similarly heated. -2x containers (one of them preferably being metal for the oil), -unleaded petrol/Acetone/Terpentine/Rubbing alcohol or any good degreaser, -metal object/s (I used mild steel, Please note this method should NOT be used on tempered/hardened steel as you will effect the properties of the metal). To remove them, you put the action/barrel into a sturdy vise (padded with soft jaws) and you use a piece of brass rod to drift the sights out. I didnt drop outta my mommas womb being able to do this stuff. Shooting Mystery is an independent website that provides content for informational purposes only. If youre interested, just ask and I can provide more details. FigureLLC. Seriously, this is interesting and thank you for posting it, but I hope to never be in a position where I need to use either of these techniques! What did you use for polishing your pieces and Im guessing you polished then added the chemicals after?Thanks, Joe, Question on Introduction. I hope to someday have good knowledge to pass on to people, heh. Central Texas. Thats how vigorously we de-grease guns before starting blueing. Many older browning and bluing formulas are based on corrosive solutions (necessary to cause metal to rust), and often contain cyanide or mercury salts solutions that are especially toxic to humans. 2mm wire has a circumference of ~0.25in. Thanks a lot for sharing. Usually, you can find the manufacturers recommended ratio in the product manual. Dont drop or try to bend the steel once its removed. you may benefit from the use of a gas lense as well. Bluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust using a black oxide coating. You should note that the blue layer is rather delicate so dont treat it roughly. I handed a buddy my wallet and cell phone, and stepped under the safety shower and got wet. ", informative and did not use technical language and concepts that would have left me floundering and none the wiser. I use kerosene to wet my paper from 500 on up. Life is good. Bluing only works on steel, cast iron, or stainless steel parts for protecting against corrosion because it changes iron into Fe3O4; it does not work on non-ferrous material. tighter your arc, the less the heat input will be. The part that is to race the other is heated normally up to about 220 especially if it is an aluminum casting like a cylinder head. Most waters in the Rockies clear out to the west coast will have high(er) dissolved solids in them. All those materials the leather and bone the coal where sources of carbon and other trace elements. These minerals (often calcium and magnesium compounds) tend to result in blotchy and uneven results. These processes were later abandoned by major firearm manufacturers as it often took parts days to finish completely, and was very labor-intensive. Ive hot salt blued guns in a shop with the proper equipment and you can shove a river of iron through a single hot salt tank in an afternoon. I wouldnt use this bluing method for these items. Thanks for always being so willing to share, Sir. If cold bluing is the only practical option, the area should be kept oiled to extend the life of the coating as much as possible. Did you ever find out what oil they were using? "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6dwEQfHK1tk_ZeaA4PniOA/", The melting point for KNO3 is 633F. Shooting Mystery is reader-supported. Then, use a pair of tongs to carry the steel to a container filled with water or vegetable, and submerge the hot metal in the liquid. Always wear goggles and gloves when operating a propane blow torch. I'm a professional knifemaker and use many very high-temp methods including quenching 1,600F steel in pre-heated oil - I know what I'm talking about, 'cause I still have 10 fingers and my eyesight. 84 or Du-Lite 3-0. Theres nothing I see as super-dangerous about blueing other than trying to do hot salt blueing without all the correct safety equipment and precautions. To obtain oil-free steel wool, get some acetone in a container (say, an old, clean yogurt container you were going to throw away anyway). You can get a IR non-contact thermometer for less than $20 at Harbor Freight. I guess Ill have to just be happy drying toilet paper. My apologies for the background noise in the first half of the video We had compressors running where I I dont have that much blueing to do in my shop, so I dont use hot salts. } 3 years ago. When youre using polishing paper, you think that 600 grit is very fine, and it is taking you hours to polish out something to 600. Use a steel tool to stir (remember the fumes). wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. Learn more Steel is a common durable alloy, and while most steel used in tools is already tough, you can harden it even more to prevent wear and tear. Heat the gun parts. { ", steel". Bluing is most commonly used by gun manufacturers, gunsmiths, and gun owners to improve the cosmetic appearance of and provide a measure of corrosion resistance to their firearms. Ive cut and pasted this to my notes on the cloud. on Introduction, looks nice but you are using what is known as heat treatment which will darken steel, not using bluing salts as in gun bluing of rifle barrels all in all very nice instructable, Reply When polishing something like the above rifle/shotgun, youve got a pretty light coat of rust, without severe pitting. Thank you all who had a part in the production of this important information! How to colour steel with heat (hot oil finish) is a simple but effective way of achieving a desired colour of choice.The colours are fantastic and often come out in a beautiful two-tone shine. I have in the past few years became more and more. Oil binds with the metal and prevent it from getting air/chemicals to corrode. Gee, Im thinkin Duro or cero coat maybe even Krylon might be a good enough.. You can improve your results by doing two things: 1. Your container should be relatively larger than your object. The inside barrel was saved by the fact it was so full of lead fouling. Referring to the post that started all of this; Dyspeptic Gunsmith says: Not blessed with a climate controlled safe. How to Blue (Bluing) Steel Using Oven Or Torch and Oil Method OOMAN 2.28K subscribers Subscribe 872 112K views 4 years ago My apologies for the background All About Bluing Steel Stainless Steel Necessary Gears and Tools Procedure Step 1: Ready the bluing tank Step 2: Process the components of the gun Step 3: Suspend This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Hunter Rising. For the color change to be uniform you have to remove the grease, oil, paint etc or it looks blotchy. Any gun. The use of stainless steel alloy varies a lot from one manufacturer to the other and thats why the bluing effect wont always be consistent. Follow the instructions. This is how Colt made their rifles and pistols prior to Civil War you can read all about the process. I'm trying to be positive and constructive, and think this is: for an amateur to stick a very hot torch-heated metal object into a plastic container filled with oil is simply dumb (ok, more polite: "irresponsible") at best, highly dangerous at worst. Dang it all. The reason why blued guns rust is that something was allowed to attack the surface blueing and get through it to new steel or the blueing job wasnt deep enough to complete passivate the surface from red rust. Heat the area you'd like to drill just until it starts to glow red, then allow it to cool slowly. Hot blueing is a good process, especially if you have a lot of iron to shove through the blueing process quickly. My first time wasnt a stunning success. Blue Metal Shell 13 in 1 Welding Torch Nozzle Tip Cleaner For Welder Soldering. I dont use hot salt blueing because much of my work is on older double guns, which have ribs that are soft-soldered into place. Ill detail why. I am using bronze, is it for a polish? The only way to do that is to heat it until the metal de-magnetises, quench it again, and then temper to the desired hardness. I have at least three cold blue solutions in my shop including Oxpho-blue, 44-40 and others. If you drop a piece of paper in there, or hydrocarbon compounds (like oil or grease on your part). Rust bluing is also used on shotgun barrels that are soldered to the rib between the barrels, as hot bluing solutions melt the solder during the bluing process. This is a great source that you can learn lots of information from and I'll advise it to to a handfuls of others. So you said the polishing is key for the coloring process. You are nitre blueing here. Oil-free steel wool is also sold by woodworking shops. This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer. Remember the oil is probably gonna release some smoke/fumes once the piece is quenched so as said before: please do this step in a well ventilated area. Degrease and heat the items to be blued in a steel pan to about 700F. In literally 10 seconds on a buffing wheel incorrectly applied, I could screw that up to a point where it might take be eight+ hours of hand polishing to recover my prior results.