Gun Bluing and Nickel Plating

[muzzman]

What's a good cold gun bluing? I have and use "Super blue" and it looks good, but smells like fresh rabbit and squirrel pee mixed.....all the time...even when dry. If gets on your hands too! Then you smell like pee also. :redface:

I would like to know what other bluing is out there that doesn't smell and is still really good...and cheap. Is Van's bluing any good?

Also what's the deal with nickel plating? How is this done? I saw a couple of people nickel plate their Colt Walkers. Is there some kind of cold blue nickel plating? hows it done? Do you have to send your gun into a shop or something? Any help would be gr8!

Muzzman

 

[paulvallandigham]

Muzzman: WADR, Don't you have soap and water? That is all I have every needed to get urine off my hands, whether it was from an accident, or a baby, or an animal. Use the same liquid detergent you use for washing dishes to wash your hands, and the problem is solved.

Stick with the Super Blue. Its not how it smells, but how well it works that matter. There are other cold blues out there, like 44/40, but they don't work nearly as well as that blue paste. For depth of finish, color and durability, heat the piece to be blued with a propane torch until water sizzles off it. Then lay on the bluing compound with a swab, or Q-tip, or, as I do, use 2 or 3 Q-tips held together to swab the bluing on the barrel. Do this in a well ventilated area, like a garage with the main door open. Use a mask to keep from breathing in the fumes, and keep the work at eye level or above when both heating and bluing.

When you finish covereing the surface with the compound, a brown/white residue will be on the metal surface. Leave it there. keep the heat on the barrel, and then spray it with WD40, until it cools down to be able to touch it with your hands. The oil spray will burn at first as its cooling the barrel which is why I suggest continuing spraying until the barrel is cool and its coated with the oil. Let it sit and drip dry. Then you can take it into the sink and wash off the remaining residue with soap and water, and dry. Re-oil and let it sit over night. This seems to help the color fix. Check the barrel in natural sunlight for color and consistency. I usually do my barrels several times, all the same way, but on successive days. I find that I get a great blue/black color, that it is deep in the pores of the steel because of the heating I did to the barrel before bluing, and that allowing it to sit over night coated in oil tends to help the colors fix. If you burn the oil off the barrel, you will help make the blue blacker, and this is how you match the color of factory blue jobs. You have to use a good eye, and you need to look at the barrel in natural sunlight to get the best result. You can reblue and reblue until you get the color right all over the piece. You don't have to sand or strip down the bluing unless you don't like the finish on the barrel( its either too dull, or to shiny, or varies from one side to the other.)

 

[muzzman]

So if I heat it up can I use Super Blue on it still...?, or that 44/40 or whatever you said?

 

[paulvallandigham]

Try whatever you want. But try them first on some scraps of steel to see how they do. I like the results I got from the Birchwood Casey product, much better than 44/40, and other bluing compounds I have tried. I do recommend using the 44/40 to people who are wanting to grey barrels to achieve a patina on barrels of muskets and rifles used in re-enactments. That product knocks off the shine, and leaves a very thin " blue " that soon becomes grey, better than the B/C paste.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Nickle plating is a chemical/electrical process which is somewhat involved. There are small 'kits' available for hobbyist use, I've never used one. Electroless nickle plating is similar to hot dip bluing but tougher, unaware of any hobby kits available.

 

[renovato]

For cold bluing, I highly suggest Wheeler Engineering's Premier Gun Blue. They say it's as durable as hot blue, and it looks great! It's the best cold blue I've tried, and I've tried most, if not all of them. It's light years ahead of anything else on the market, at least for now.

As for nickel, I do electroless nickel plating and it's a simple process. You can buy a kit at Brownells or Caswell Plating. I prefer the Caswell stuff, myself. Essentially, it's a nickel saturated bath that plates to the metal ionically. It doesn't peel like the old fashioned electroplating did. It doesn't require a copper base coat for steel either. It's a little pricey just to do one gun, but if you have several to do, it's very economical.