Oxpho. Or jax black

[Crow#21957]

Anyone used oxpho bluing solution or Jax Black to finish a barrel and other steel parts.
Could you post pics please.

 

[chorizo]

All of these except the top barrel had severely degraded bluing or browning. The bottom pic with the Stainless Steel breech plug was drawn filed until the breech matched the barrel then oxpho. In front of the breech was in the white. For comparison the tang is original bluing, the barrel is oxpho. The SS breech plug is 4640 Stainless and will not take a blue.

I heat the cleaned and degreased barrel until it is close to too hot to touch (but not too hot to handle) on an induction stove top (simple and fast) and then apply the gel version with steel wool rubbing until I get the desired color. I usually do three applications, cleaning, degreasing then heating and applying.

 

[Crow#21957]

Can that be rubbed back to a grey and faded in spots if wanted.

 

[chorizo]

Not really, I think.. I haven't tried it, however, so a practice piece to try it on might work. What the oxpho will provide in a thin finish is a blue tinge. Also the hotter the metal, the blacker the oxpho will turn. I want mine black as I can get it, so I heat to just about too hot to handle.

I have read in this forum, but do not rightly remember, to get grey you use a different method using naval jelly. Looked fairly nice.

EDIT: I found this thread in a search: Gray Steel

 

[Sam squanch]

I did use it on a pistol barrel once , the oxpho blue. Keep adding to it , it will look nice if you build up the finish.

 

[sdilts]

Used Oxpho on this.

 

[mike54]

Jax black. rubbed it back with grey synthetic steel wool.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Like 'SDilts' above, I use Brownell's Oxpho-Blue cold, after a good cleaning using Naptha/lighter fluid, and then rub it back to the desired 'French Gray' color ('grey' if Anglais, lol!) using gray ScotchBrite. This on a French Fusil de Chasse of the 1727 contract from Tulle.

Note the lock and barrel only shine brighter, due to the angle of the photo as taken.

 

[Col. Batguano]

If you want a long lasting blued finish, blue it properly. The cold blue solutions don't have the durability that a proper blued finish has.