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. Use a steel tool to stir (remember the fumes). Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Youre a gunsmith who has a lot of nice guns! Your container should be relatively larger than your object. Browning a gun gives you a nice, even brown patina finish of red rust on a gun. I want to add rainbow color to safety razor blades that would be used again, how can I do this? Wait for a day to let the bluing properly cure before you do anything else to it. You can also heat the oil to create different effects. It is a difficult product to apply evenly, offers minimal protection and is generally best used for small fast repair jobs and touch-ups.[2][3]. I agree used oil works better and adding some copper and graphite seems to deepen the color and add more purple or plum to it. I heat treated a piece of carbon steel to make it less likely to wear (using its edge as a cutting surface in a wood turning application). That seems wasteful. The tempering reduces the amount of martensite and thus makes the steel softer. This crucible was heated to 730C (1,350F) for up to 6hours (the longer the heat was applied the thicker the case hardening). It will first turn gold, then orange, then red, purple, blue and then dark grey! If you are referring to torch bluing, the occasionally I'll buff it afterwards. Youll want to clamp on the barrel directly under the sight youre about to drift out. Most knives, rifle receivers and barrels are heated to at least 1200F and cooled and drawn at 490F-700F. Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). 2mm wire has a circumference of ~0.25in. Rinse them in a cold water tank after. When putting water in your boil-out tank, use distilled water if you have water with high mineral content. Metal Finishing Guru. ", steel". Fortunately, this is easily had at any hardware store: WD-40 is a water displacing product, not a lubricant (contrary to widespread advertising). No one can even tell you what the heat treat is on a 1895 Mauser for instance yet we do not wet ourselves before we shoot one! A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! To shrink, I assumed you heated the steel plate only, to expand the hole in it. Then you sight down the barrel and you see dips and waves in the barrel profile. Hardened steel prevents knife blades from dulling and tools from bending and breaking. Bluing is also used in seasoning cast-iron cookware, to render it relatively rust-proof and non-stick. Next you hold it in front of your heat source until a blue oxide layer covers the whole blade edge. Safety notes: Dont use an aluminum pan. 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 Ill be saving this for the future. List Price: $18.64 $18.64. References { JUST DONT. 3 years ago. Thanks for the lesson, DG. 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). Picture Information. 99. The difference is immersion in boiling water for bluing. I handed a buddy my wallet and cell phone, and stepped under the safety shower and got wet. Next wash your piece in your chosen degreaser for a minute or so to get rid of all grease/fingerprints that was on the metal. Any more advice is welcome SteelJunkee Joined May 6, 2018 Messages 891 It provides the stainless steel surface with a layer of protection, giving rust and corrosion resistance while reducing potential glare as well. 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. This answer was tested with a utility knife blade and it drilled through with ease. The steel is also used for producing great police flashlights with awesome durability. Although the steel parts, such as anOrdains watch hands, are near enough miniscule, each Use your torch to bring up Fume bluing is another process similar to rust bluing. Bluing may be applied by immersing steel parts in a solution of potassium nitrate, sodium hydroxide, and water heated to the boiling point, 275310F (135154C) depending on the recipe. - Ballachy", "Bluing of Steel by Heat Treatment: Why and How it Happens? The de-greasing you do directly affects the uniformity of the browning or blueing. Heres instructions from Mark Lee Supplies on using their Express Blue #1. Just remove the blue/rust, degrease, dry, then blue/card/boil-out/oil/drain. ", https://mgs.edu/making-chisels-skips-newsletter/, http://www.technologystudent.com/equip1/heat1.htm. Share it with us! No. New guns are typically available in blued finish options offered as the least-expensive finish, and this finish is also the least effective at providing rust resistance, relative to other finishes such as Parkerizing or hard chrome plating or nitriding processes like Tenifer. This article received 28 testimonials and 92% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. 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 "Cold" bluing is generally a selenium dioxide based compound that colours steel black, or more often a very dark grey. Also: Do not allow the solution to run, drip or sag. So, you start with a clean gun, in the white, you play a propane torch over the gun to get it to the point where the blueing solution just will readily steam, but barely sizzle, and then you brush on the blueing compound. Modern home hobbyist versions of this process typically use a hydrogen peroxide and salt solution, sometimes with vinegar, for the rusting step to avoid the need for more dangerous acids.[7]. Gun companies dont/wont do it because they want to make quick money, and today its all phosphates and bake-on appliance paint (you didnt think a guy who calls Glocks cheez-whiz was going to sing the praises of Duracote or Cerakote, did you?). Always wear goggles and gloves when operating a propane blow torch. } Then you have to heat the metal. 1. You will need:-2x containers (one of them preferably being metal for the oil)-oil -unleaded petrol/Acetone/Terpentine/Rubbing alcohol or any goo Now, using the information above, you should have little problem bluing your firearms on your own. 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. The rod was heated and the plate 2" square was inserted and the rod shrunk onto it. Your 700F temp is too high, IMO. Dont pour water in to your bath! You can then use a soft brush to gently remove all the residue of the cleaning solution on the components. Before operating your torch, read all instructions so you know how to handle it safely. When youre done and have neutralized & washed off the Express Blue #1 solution, you then should spray down the barrel with water-displacing oil. Friction, as from holster wear, quickly removes cold bluing, and also removes hot bluing, rust, or fume bluing over long periods of use. In my case I drilled/threaded the metal piece and made a holder with a threaded end. Soft, low-carbon steel was used, but strong materials were needed for the receivers of firearms. 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. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. 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. Depending on the manufacturers manual, youll have to prepare roughly 6 to 8 tanks to perform the bluing effectively and efficiently. At 700, you start losing your blues and the steel starts becoming a wispy silvery-blue, not a dark brilliant blue. Pull it out of the tank and place on a drain rack. The thickness of the oxide is a function of how hot you heat the steel (The color is due to interference of light reflecting from the surface of the oxide coating, and light reflecting from the oxide-steel interface). "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6dwEQfHK1tk_ZeaA4PniOA/", (Its Crystalline Potassium Nitrate 100%) $6.18 Ships from and sold by Direct-Wholesale. The colours range through straw, gold, brown, purple, blue, teal, then black. The parts are then boiled in distilled water, blown dry, then carded, as with rust bluing. That would be a hot salt blueing mix. 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. Thank you, DG! Once the steel is clean, you can begin heating it up. 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.. Vegetable oil has a higher boiling point, so the hot steel will take longer to cool and reduce the chance of it cracking. 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. You need to adjust the boiling point of the salts for your altitude. Dont drop or try to bend the steel once its removed. Acetone is also useful for de-greasing the barreled action. ", Please be careful with the cold bluing solutions. Degrease and heat the items to be blued in a steel pan to about 700F. I have done a cold blue on a very rusted .22 for a friend. 5 years ago, I found that heating will turn steel silver ~> gold ~> violet ~> blue. Heat the Steel. ], 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. It, too, must be oiled to provide any significant rust resistance. My apologies for the background noise in the first half of the video We had compressors running where I had to shoot this This video shows how to blue steel parts using an oven or torch and quenching in oil This method is not the professional method using bluing salts but can be done in your home with a torch or if you have access to a high temperature oven This method will provide your parts some protection from corrosion and show how to achieve different colors in the steel by varying temperatures I am not a professional so please spare me the that s not hot bluing and other criticisms If you don t like it turn it off Hope this comes in handy for someone, How to take apart disassemble and put together assemble a 1911 pistol 1st method, Stevens 20 Gauge Break Action Shotgun Project - Part 4 Cold Bluing with Brownells Oxpho-Blue Creme, Van's Instant Gun Bluing - Removing Gun Rust, Cold bluing Steel blackening How to use Tifoo Black Devil - burnishing steel, Gun Bluing - Colt Official Police 38 Special, Vintage Screwdriver Cold Bluing Br nierung Restore No 2, Slow rust bluing O1 knife blades part two, Easy and Fast bluing touch up Presto Gun Blue Pen, DuraBlue Spray-on Bluing Aerosol Application Process Polished Version, Axe Restoration Part Two Bluing With Birchwood Casey Superblue, Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black Super Blue and Metal Work on a Tanfoglio TA22S, Gun Bluing using cold blue and heat Weihrauch HW35 E Restoration, Perma Blue Gun Blue Paste Birchwood Casey. Just let any residual matter evaporate/dry. That surface rust on the barrel could be polished off easily. Ive gotten hot blue salts on me splashed into my hair. It is slightly caustic, so be careful you dont leave it on the gun for long. on Introduction. You want to be in the range of 600 to 650F. Wipe them down with WD-40 on a regular basis. Oil and grease really are the enemy because youre trying to (literally) corrode the metal. It is always essential to remove all oils from metals you want to blue, even if the cold blueing solution claims you dont need to do so. My advice to people here: Unless youre a professional, and youre working in a shop with all the required safety gear (a cold water shower within a couple feet of the tanks, and an eyewash station next to the tanks, and someone working in the same shop every moment youre working on the salt tanks), DONT. Ventilation is important. Oil-free steel wool is also sold by woodworking shops. Both ingredients are super cheap. It is slow rust blueing. The salts will be a gooey caustic mess while theyre cold, and you MUST have covers on the tank when youre not using them, or the salts will climb over the edges of the tank and make a mess on the floor. Often it does provide an adequate cosmetic touch-up of a gun's finish when applied and additionally oiled on a regular basis. Hot. My current rifle builds are going to be parkerzied. Not blessed with a climate controlled safe. Where/how did you think I got to the point I could make nice guns? There are many simple ways to achieve good bluing. I used Express Blue #1 on lots of guns, where I want something less labor intensive than slow rust blueing (which I wont describe here): most steel wool isnt oil-free. February 20, 2016 at 16:12. I guess Ill have to just be happy drying toilet paper. The tank of distilled water you heat with a camp stove, the kitchen stove (Im not responsible for marital discord and disruptions of conjugal relations) or some other much larger heat source to a boil. Itll take perhaps 20 minutes to really dry down. We have all kinds of rifles and shotguns with recievers made from non-Fe alloys again we do not give it a second though or break out the hardness tester. If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. 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. A non-linear resistance property of the blued steel of razor blades, foreshadowing the same property later discovered in semiconductor diode junctions, along with the ready availability of blued steel razor blades, led to the use of razor blades as a detector in crystal set AM radios that were built by servicemen (as foxhole radios) or by prisoners of war during World War II.[8]. The melting point for KNO3 is 633F. Slow rust blueing can take a week or more to accomplish, but it is a durable blue job like no other. By using our site, you agree to our. It was left in a flannel gun case in the back of a moist closet for 25+ years. Holy crap, did that reaction hurt like hell. He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns. 2023 All Rights Reserved by Shooting Mystery. Thank you so much for sharing such a great article. Then remove it from the degreaser, don't be tempted to wipe it off with anything. This will keep the bluing from adhering to the sharpened edge. First, let us go through a couple of bluing concepts that you have to know in order to achieve the desired result. You can make a Caustic Soda KNO3 water bath: 65% Lye (aka sodium hydroxide) 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. Were committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Treating with an oiled coating enhances the protection offered by the bluing. Drill bits and gun barrels are common examples. | Alpha Detroit", "NRA Family | Gun Manufacturing: Browning vs. Bluing", http://mypeculiarnature.blogspot.com/2014/08/quick-rust-bluing-back-in-black.html, "Radio Kits and Designs for Old and New Styles", "Coating, Oxide, Black, for Ferrous Metals (MIL-DTL-13924D)", "Phosphate and black oxide coating of ferrous metals (MIL-HDBK-205A)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bluing_(steel)&oldid=1142351288, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles that may contain original research from October 2020, All articles that may contain original research, Articles needing additional references from October 2020, All articles needing additional references, Articles lacking in-text citations from September 2014, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Articles with dead external links from July 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 22:58. Heat the area you'd like to drill just until it starts to glow red, then allow it to cool slowly. ")You're ABSOLUTELY right. You can get a IR non-contact thermometer for less than $20 at Harbor Freight. Either of these two methods is called 'hot bluing'. 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. This process was repeated until the desired depth of color was achieved or the metal simply did not color further. you may benefit from the use of a gas lense as well. While the rod may heat some by conduction, it wouldn't get hot enough to start the color-forming process. 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. This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer. In this case cooking oil, rather than gun oil, acts to displace water and prevent rust. [4], Bluing can also be done in a furnace, for example for a sword or other item traditionally made by a blacksmith or specialist such as a weapon-smith. Rinse them in a cold water tank after. Hot blueing salts attack soft solders on guns, so it isnt to be done on old shotguns and some older rifles. For hazzalandy: carbon content has nothing to do with the color process, it is only the temperature you heat to, and to a lesser extent, the time spent hot. You have to apply the bluing fluid. The color is oxide, but I believe you can scrape it off. Also thanks DG! "@type": "ImageObject", If the sights need to be stripped & blued, follow the same procedure, but dont polish on them. Its much cheaper anyways. Then you pull it out and scrape off the oil along the blade edge. 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. If you want to blue something fast I have a cheap hot blue method: Lowes stump remover: 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. "Rust bluing" and "fume bluing" provide the best rust and corrosion resistance as the process continually converts any metal that is capable of rusting into magnetite (Fe3O4). 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, DG; unless I missed it, I am assuming the torch is used separate from heating the tank/ container with the boiling solution. Todos los derechos reservados. This article has been viewed 914,567 times. ", the wrong quality steel. Work on a metal or steel surface, such as an anvil, to avoid any fire hazards. They should start gassing up approximately 2 to 3 minutes after exposure. If you do not get crazy and over heat the steel there is no reason to be fearful of the process. This step should be done before heating the steel, as the steel should be quenched immediately after removing from heat. That said, heres the truth: The best blueing you can have on a gun is simple, safe to do, but takes a long time. The part you want to place in the receiving part is cold often just placed in a freezer for a few hours. The bottom of the crucible is opened allowing the contents to drop into the rapidly bubbling water. Next, suspend the components in a cleaning solution tank to get rid of dirt, oil, grease, and crud. The object on the left is a custom mild steel potentiometer knob! Because so many people are trying to do this sort of thing on the cheap, thats when I start thundering in my warnings about safety. "description": "If you want to find out how to blue stainless steel, then you've come to the right place. There can be different layers you have to apply. It is also used by machinists, to protect and beautify tools made for their own use. I found through my bluing adventure that different oils do act slighty different but ultimately everything I've used has done the job. Depending on what solution you use, the tank temperature must be maintained somewhere between 240 and 310 degrees Fahrenheit. Let them cool down as you take a closer look at the bluing effect. 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. If a bank transfer is made but no receipt is uploaded within this period, your order will be cancelled. You can blue heat-treated parts with no ill effects. Dang it all. You risk a big fire that is self sustaining by the reaction itself. My dad keeps his in a big safe with large desiccant packs that he threw in there. 1. 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 Could I use stainless steel earrings that I have got? I have also had good results with 5w/30 motor oil, I've also used two-stroke oil with good results. Fill a heat-safe container with water or oil deep enough to submerge your steel. Heat the gun parts. Spilling salts at this temperature will instantly result in fire, because the KNO3 is a powerful oxidizer all on its own, and the added thermal energy will light anything on fire all alone. 3 years ago I used Brownells Plum Brown, a product that requires that the barrel be heated to 275 degrees to activate the reaction. WebBluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust using a black oxide coating. gas coverage is another big one. 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! 4 years ago Wear thick gloves and a face mask before you quench your steel so the water or oil doesnt splash onto your hands. I have in the past few years became more and more. Some people might not have a tank long enough to contain a barreled action to boil out. Brilliant blues. Woodworkers doing furniture finishing will use 000 and 0000 wool, and they hate oil on their wool for rubbing down oil finishes. } I am simply trying to learn anything and everything that there is to know about it. ", not only fun, but also profitable. And I work alone in my shop, and lack the required (IMO) safety facilities that are needed. 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. "name": "Shooting Mystery", Approved. Enjoy! The color is not oxides, when steel is heated at relatively low heats (300-600 degrees Fahrenheit) it changes colors from light yellow to a deep blue, after 600 it turns back to a steel color. Hot bluing should never be attempted on aluminium, as it reacts it usually dissolves in the caustic salt bath. Thoroughly degrease the area to be reblued with acetone. It is usually sold in a 1lb bottle for $3, you'll need 3 or 4 pounds probably. Add the two together and you have what is akin to rocket fuel in your face a way of oxidizing almost any organic material with insufficient water for cooling into a furious flame. The name of the process actually comes from the blue-black appearance of the black iron oxide. Then, you can put the components back into the bluing tank and increase the temperature until you see the blued steel. 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. I thought there was something that could help improve the colors but wasnt sure until I came across this. It is always essential to remove all oils from metals you want to blue, even if the cold blueing solution claims you dont need to do so. Then you can express blue it with a propane torch and a tank of boiling water. the cost of all the tanks you need for rinse & boil-out So As one newish to refined firearms ownership, what is the best way to store and protect a pistol or rifle from rusting, especially in areas like Oregon or Washington, Silicon socks, or ? Examples of this finish are common on older pocket watches whose hands exhibit what is called 'peacock blue', a rich iridescent blue. The parts must be observed constantly for colour change. Gas burners can usually do the job for this. I just had my first experience rust browning a barrel. However, if the bluing effect isnt satisfactory, then you can try giving the components an acid bath (using Hydrochloric Acid). Thanks a lot for sharing. This is an alternative method for creating the black oxide coating. Stand on end over some paper towels to drain. If you have very light, fine pitting, you can polish this out.
bluing steel with a torch