Brownells Oxpho-blue ???

[Robby]

It is by far the best cold bluing solution I have ever used.
Robby

 

[Ragged Edge]

I have a friend who has built around a hundred flintlocks. This guy would turn B-C Plum Brown into the nicest blued finish I ever saw using just a propane torch. I think it had something to do with him working in a very damp enviornment.

 

[11Bravo]

Wouldn't one be more accurate if doing an early FL do cold rust browning? I ask this as in the 70s when I built my FL that was I did and it seemed that was also always talked about in Muzzle Blasts at the time. All my original cap locks are blued and I have no FL originals to compare with.

 

[excess650]

An early flintlock wouldn't have been browned - Armory bright or maybe charcoal blued, but not browned.

I used Oxpho Blue on a couple of barrels and it holds up OK for a while. It looks pretty good as a distressed finish if you blue the barrel a couple of times and then steel wool it back an oil it. On my personal flintlock, the area around the lock has lost its color from the powder flash.

 

[DuncNZ]

I always pour boiling water over any part I want to use cold blue on , when it has cooled I card the finish back with degreased steel 0000 wool and do it again , as many times as necessary to get the required finish . Works for me .

 

[BillKilgore]

I always pour boiling water over any part I want to use cold blue on , when it has cooled I card the finish back with degreased steel 0000 wool and do it again , as many times as necessary to get the required finish . Works for me .

Heating the metal to be blued is important. Boiling water should work well. I have used a hair dryer with good results. I also think Oxpho Blue is the best cold blue.

 

[Rifleman1776]

it holds up OK for a while

Amen, Bro. IMHO, not a permanent blue. I have used it for decades as a touch up/dress up. But it does not last and will wear off from frequently handled areas. I get best application when rubbed in with 4aught steel wool.

 

[LRB]

One important tip I'll pass along when using Oxpho Blue Gel. Make SURE you NEVER put the part you want to blue in the bottle as you will quickly contaminate and ruin the bottle. Also, ONLY dip brand new clean Q Tips in the bottle ONE TIME ONLY and never a second time. Just throw the once used Q Tips away and grab a fresh one every time you use it. That way the Oxpho Blue will be good all the way the last drop in the bottle.

Gus

Damn good advice! Good stuff, but what you said is certain fact. Took me awhile, and a few bottles of it to learn that.

 

[Artificer]

Artificer said:
One important tip I'll pass along when using Oxpho Blue Gel. Make SURE you NEVER put the part you want to blue in the bottle as you will quickly contaminate and ruin the bottle. Also, ONLY dip brand new clean Q Tips in the bottle ONE TIME ONLY and never a second time. Just throw the once used Q Tips away and grab a fresh one every time you use it. That way the Oxpho Blue will be good all the way the last drop in the bottle.

Gus

Damn good advice! Good stuff, but what you said is certain fact. Took me awhile, and a few bottles of it to learn that.

Hi Wick

I was fortunate to learn it after only ruining one bottle when it was about half gone, because we used it in the RTE Shop and thus over three dozen bottles were on folks' work benches at any one time. So it was easy to see by looking at many of the bottles, how contaminated they had become at different stages of each bottle's use. Some of us had ruined their bottles about the time it was only 1/4 gone. So believe it or not, I incorporated how to NOT contaminate one's Oxpho Blue into the Apprenticeship Training.

Of course, after I retired and had to pay for my Oxpho Blue myself, I made DARN SURE I never put a used/contaminated Q Tip or part into the bottle! I chuckle when I get down to the very last of a bottle thinking "Good to the last drop."

Sometimes when I ran/run into a screw or small part that didn't want to blue well on the first go around, I would pour a little bit into a paper cup and tilt it so the part in the paper cup was completely immersed and then let it sit or a minute or two. One or two times it went back into the tilted cup before it got the desired color. However, by pouring some out of the bottle into another container to do that, it didn't ruin the whole bottle of Oxpho Blue.

Hopefully others will take the advice you and I learned the hard way, Wick.

Gus

 

[30coupe]

I also prefer the gel, but both do the job. If you follow Bob Brownell's instructions and burnish with steel wool between coats, Oxpho-Blue creates quite a durable finish. It won't be the deep blue/black of hot blue, but I actually like that better on a muzzleloader as it gives it a rather aged look. To each his own in that regard, but you won't find a better cold blue. I used it on my TC Hawken kit, which came out great. I'd post a picture, but the ones I had were saved on Photobucket, which I dropped when they wanted to start charging for it, and my rifle is 2 1/2 hours away at my acreage. Might get there this week and snap a few.

 

[30coupe]

I would also echo what Wick and Gus have said about contaminating Oxpho. I also learned it the hard way. I will say, the gel is less susceptible to contamination due to it's thick nature. Maybe that's another reason I like it.

 

[Artificer]

Wouldn't one be more accurate if doing an early FL do cold rust browning? I ask this as in the 70s when I built my FL that was I did and it seemed that was also always talked about in Muzzle Blasts at the time. All my original cap locks are blued and I have no FL originals to compare with.

11Bravo,

In the 1960's and 1970's, most folks thought that cold rust browning (as done in a homemade humidity cabinet, often with a light bulb and pan of water inside) was the correct way to do it for 18th century smoothbores and rifles. Actually, when more study of original arms and documentation has been done since, such a finish would not have been seen pretty much until the 19th century, as explained below.

Where many of us got it wrong back then was from a very few original 18th century texts that mentioned "browneing" or "browning," when in fact they were referring to what we call "bluing." Confusing, isn't it?

excess650 got it right when he posted above: "An early flintlock wouldn't have been browned - Armory bright or maybe charcoal blued, but not browned."

What I found rather amazing is when they case hardened the Iron Lock Parts and some other parts, they thought the color from case hardening looked "unprofessional" and always polished the lock parts back to bare metal or what they called "Bright" or "Armory Bright."

What I found REALLY amazing to my modern mind is they normally left the IRON rifle barrels "in the white" from finish filing. (Though they didn't polish them more than that.) Now those IRON barrels eventually and slowly oxidized to a greyish and later brown color in use and over time, leaving us to believe they browned the barrels from the start when they made the rifles. I capitalized IRON in the last sentences for a reason.

What they called "bluing," or sometimes "heat bluing," is what we call charcoal bluing or flame bluing today. They would heat the IRON barrels and other parts over a fire until the metal turned blue and then oiled them. The problem was even back in the day, there were not many workers who could do that without ruining the temper of some parts. One Journal of Historical Armsmaking Technology Volume mentions in a German arms making "factory" of 17 workers, only TWO of them knew how to do it properly and they would only show their own sons how to do it - to safeguard the secret. Further, that type of bluing normally wore through fairly fast, so many folks didn't believe it was worth the added expense.

Now the same kind of period "heat bluing" or "charcoal bluing" is even more difficult to do on the STEEL alloys our barrels and lock parts are made from today. So it is even more uncommon today to find folks who will do it and do it well.

When folks use Cold Blue on their barrels or even Rust Blue and "knock it back" or abrade it with steel wool or abrasive pads, they are attempting to mimic the look of "heat bluing" after it was used a while.

For those interested, here is a video on "Heat Bluing" and in this case gun screws:



Here is a video on Rust Bluing (which did not come into use until the 19th century)



A faster way to Rust Blue (again, which did not come into use until the 19th century)



Gus

 

[DuncNZ]

Heating the metal to be blued is important. Boiling water should work well. I have used a hair dryer with good results. I also think Oxpho Blue is the best cold blue.

That would be the only use I'd have for a hair dryer . An electric Jug is more useful , I can use it for making tea, coffee and boiled eggs

 

[Artificer]

BillKilgore said:
Heating the metal to be blued is important. Boiling water should work well. I have used a hair dryer with good results. I also think Oxpho Blue is the best cold blue.

That would be the only use I'd have for a hair dryer . An electric Jug is more useful , I can use it for making tea, coffee and boiled eggs

Well, there is another great use for a hair blow dryer, but I won't be held responsible if you get caught with your Lady's hair dryer if you do.

If you don't have a heat gun, which I didn't for many years, a blow dryer works almost as well when wet whiskering or drying stocks.

Gus