Cool write up.
Hot bluing at home..
I blued a lot of guns in my smithing career, but when I retired I sold all that stuff. A couple years ago, I built a competition muzzle loading pistol and wanted to blue it. Didn't want to buy 50 pounds of bluing salts and a whole set up, and having worked as a chemist for awhile, I started looking to make some hot blue salts. A net search showed someone already had, and I modified their process a bit, but it worked as well as the expensive salts from Brownells. Getting a gun blued these days is expensive, long waits, shipping costs etc. and the people often use soft buffing wheels that round off edges, dish flats, distort lettering etc etc. and glass beads that are too coarse for my taste. A careful hobby gunsmith can prep their own pistol as well as, and probably better than some commercial outfits I've seen, with patience. The ingredients are found at hardware stores or garden centers and pretty cheap. Anyway, anyone wanting to try it, let me know & I'll email a copy of the process. Not enough room in a post here. Or they can put it in articles, if anyone knows how to do that??
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Got it printed out and thank you
I've been looking for an old timer to give good instructions for weather guarding steel and here you are! Thanks a bunch buddy! Brownell's must mark up stock 10 or 15 times what they paid for it and considering they don't have the overhead of a brick-n-mortar store, I'd say they are overcharging us! That Brownell's CEO Larry Potterfield guy always looks like he just took a huge bite out of a **** sandwich so maybe he is really mad all the time and just wants to charge high prices because he is mean, who knows! Thanks a bunch!I blued a lot of guns in my smithing career, but when I retired I sold all that stuff. A couple years ago, I built a competition muzzle loading pistol and wanted to blue it. Didn't want to buy 50 pounds of bluing salts and a whole set up, and having worked as a chemist for awhile, I started looking to make some hot blue salts. A net search showed someone already had, and I modified their process a bit, but it worked as well as the expensive salts from Brownells. Getting a gun blued these days is expensive, long waits, shipping costs etc. and the people often use soft buffing wheels that round off edges, dish flats, distort lettering etc etc. and glass beads that are too coarse for my taste. A careful hobby gunsmith can prep their own pistol as well as, and probably better than some commercial outfits I've seen, with patience. The ingredients are found at hardware stores or garden centers and pretty cheap. Anyway, anyone wanting to try it, let me know & I'll email a copy of the process. Not enough room in a post here. Or they can put it in articles, if anyone knows how to do that??
*$hit sandwich!I've been looking for an old timer to give good instructions for weather guarding steel and here you are! Thanks a bunch buddy! Brownell's must mark up stock 10 or 15 times what they paid for it and considering they don't have the overhead of a brick-n-mortar store, I'd say they are overcharging us! That Brownell's CEO Larry Potterfield guy always looks like he just took a huge bite out of a **** sandwich so maybe he is really mad all the time and just wants to charge high prices because he is mean, who knows! Thanks a bunch!
That Brownell's CEO Larry Potterfield guy
Brownells? Huh?
I am interested. Please email to [email protected]
Awesome info, great job. Tagging for future reference!
Larry Potterfield is Midway, NOT Brownells.I've been looking for an old timer to give good instructions for weather guarding steel and here you are! Thanks a bunch buddy! Brownell's must mark up stock 10 or 15 times what they paid for it and considering they don't have the overhead of a brick-n-mortar store, I'd say they are overcharging us! That Brownell's CEO Larry Potterfield guy always looks like he just took a huge bite out of a **** sandwich so maybe he is really mad all the time and just wants to charge high prices because he is mean, who knows! Thanks a bunch!
please contact me with process, mike davis, [email protected]I blued a lot of guns in my smithing career, but when I retired I sold all that stuff. A couple years ago, I built a competition muzzle loading pistol and wanted to blue it. Didn't want to buy 50 pounds of bluing salts and a whole set up, and having worked as a chemist for awhile, I started looking to make some hot blue salts. A net search showed someone already had, and I modified their process a bit, but it worked as well as the expensive salts from Brownells. Getting a gun blued these days is expensive, long waits, shipping costs etc. and the people often use soft buffing wheels that round off edges, dish flats, distort lettering etc etc. and glass beads that are too coarse for my taste. A careful hobby gunsmith can prep their own pistol as well as, and probably better than some commercial outfits I've seen, with patience. The ingredients are found at hardware stores or garden centers and pretty cheap. Anyway, anyone wanting to try it, let me know & I'll email a copy of the process. Not enough room in a post here. Or they can put it in articles, if anyone knows how to do that??
The mix and the procedure are in post #14-15.
If you look in one of the old gunsmithing books, the formulations are more complex, more ingredients. I suspect the expensive commercial salts are likewise combinations of sodium and potassium nitrates and nitrites.
There is another "fertilizer blue" using ammonium nitrate instead of sodium nitrate. That one should be used outside, it releases a good bit of gaseous ammonia.
If you look in one of the old gunsmithing books, the formulations are more complex, more ingredients. I suspect the expensive commercial salts are likewise combinations of sodium and potassium nitrates and nitrites.
There is another "fertilizer blue" using ammonium nitrate instead of sodium nitrate. That one should be used outside, it releases a good bit of gaseous ammonia.
How do you dispose of the stuff after you are done with it?
21 - 31 of 31 Posts
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