My revolver got a bit rusty during a basement flood and I was wondering if Cold Blue was worth it? I talked to someone who said it wasn't really good ,but I figured I'd come here and see if anyone knew.
Cold blue sucks. Make a rusting solution to rust blue a few times.Boil it first, use a carding wheel or fine steel wool and then rust with solution, boil and card again
>>64456993It's okay for minor touch ups, that's about it. I also prefer the thicker stuff that comes in the tube, it sticks better to the area being blued rather than beading up, and can be applied pretty accurately with a cotton swab or Q-tip.
>>64457070Yeah, it's mostly for touchups. You can blue an entire gun with it but it's difficult to get a good even finish. That said, I do think that cold blue gets a bad rap because morons use it without taking time to prep everything first, which makes a huge difference as to the quality of the work. Don't shit on a product because you were too lazy to use it correctly.My personal favorite product is Brownells Oxpho-Blue.
>>64457186Is it like preparing a car for paint where you got to sand everything down really well? I'm not expecting a perfect finish because there's some pitting thanks to the rust.
>>64457186Cold-blueing after sandblasting works well especially if you use a heat gun. Steps:>Clean with brake cleaner>Sandblast>Clean again with brake cleaner>Apply cold blue, never put back unused cold blue in bottle>Use heat gun>0000 Steel wool>More blue>Cover everything in CLP>Wait 24 hours>Remove excess CLP>EnjoyPicrelated is a 28 gauge that I fixed.
>>64457221Oh that looks nice. I don't have access to a sandblaster though and I'm sure buying a harbor freight one would probably cost as much as a gunsmith to do. But maybe I should look into it.
>>64456993Cold Blue is best used for touching up smaller spots where bluing has rubbed off, it's not particularly strong and not great for finishing or refinishing a whole gun.>>64457186I believe I've once seen someone use multiple bottles of Cold Blue to submerge a revolver they had built for themselves from scratch, (at least, that's what they said), and it did come out even, though I figure it's probably not strong, still.And yeah, preparation makes a difference.
>>64457213>Is it like preparing a car for paint where you got to sand everything down really well?NTA but no do not sand the shit out of your gun. Degreasing and removing rust is your prep (IIRC even for cold blue) which can be done with steel wool and acetone. Midway or some other YT channel probably has a video on it. Orrrrr, just take your gun apart, remove all plastic, boil the shit out of the rusty parts, and remove the rust with fine steel wool. I used to recommend #0000 but no 1 or #00 is probably fine too. #0000 just sheds too much. Then oil the shit out of the parts in a small container and let sit and soak for a while before wiping down and re-assembling. Boiling will remove ALL oils so rust will come back easily until oiled.
>>64457505Thanks for the advice. I suppose I'll try that this weekend.
>>64457221Best part is this: The plastic spacer was broken, so I made one out of coke cans. Stocl and forestock were sanded, Danish oiled then waxed with beeswax.>>64457505This. Unless it is a rusted gun of no potential historical value (like a CIL break-open), don't sand or sandblast.
>>64456993Oh shit yeah now that I re-read it that's an even better candidate for boil conversion. If you haven't touched the rust yet, literally remove the grips, remove any plastic (sights, inserts?), disassemble as far as possible (reasonable), boil (~45 min to 1hr or so?), DRY QUICKLY (use a hair dryer or heater hanging parts on a wire if need be), #0000 or #00 to knock the rust off, clean, submerse in oil (ball jars or gallon jugs with the top cut off work well). IIRC Mark Novak uses kerosene in a can and leaves it there over night to remove all the water. I'd be most concerned about water being in the barrel threads but let's be real, no one is taking a fucking revolver barrel off for something this minimal. Heating it up to dry should drive out most or all of the water anyways. How rusty is it?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQh7ve_4VBwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4QOcRTZv2Qhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nWVI_3Lo0QAlso do not use a wire wheel. You can get away with SOME but there tends to be no gap between "it eats bluing/metal" and "I don't think it does". The small ones for Dremels, maybe (quality and materials and fineness vary wildly), but even the brass and steel automotive "toothbrushes" tend to scratch metal and they're in a similar quality bracket so it's a gamble I wouldn't take when you could just do it by hand. The wire wheel that comes on a bench grinder, that thing will straight up scar metal. Don't even get one near gun parts lol.
>>64459639>Also do not use a wire wheel.The problem here is that "wire wheel" is an extremely vague term. Most of them are designed for aggressive cleaning of metal surfaces and those are much too harsh for this job. However, a *carding wheel* is designed for this exact purpose, and is the correct tool for the job. It has very long, thin, wires. These are soft and will not scratch. It is very different from the type normally fitted on a grinder which has much thicker, stiffer, wire.Carding brush = OK. Generic industrial "wire brush"? NO.
>>64461600It's the same thing with sandpaper.Yeah, if Bubba picks up a sheet of 80 grit and goes to town on his old durr rifle yeah it's going to look like shit. If someone takes the time to completely disassemble the gun, degrease everything, sands everything carefully with the right grades of paper & the proper use of backing blocks, etc, then that is an entirely different story. And there's nothing wrong with that method either, it gets used by high-end gun makers & restorers.Sandblasting is a different game entirely, you have much less control over that, it tends to soften edges and corners which will not happen if you sand correctly with backing blocks. It also leaves a random matte texture rather than leaving a "grain" direction like sanding or draw-filing does. That can look great--even better than the alternatives for some guns, like surp that would have been parkerized, but it's not the right kind of look for many other guns.
>>64461600Thing is, most people won't have a carding wheel. IIRC the one Mark uses is like $100 and no one's buying that just for one job when you also need a bench grinder/buffer to attach it to, if anon has one that's compatible with that wheel. Some Dremel wire wheels I've come across are fine enough for rust removal but they're uncommon enough and enough of a gamble that I just don't recommend taking the risk to anons who might end up with one meant for rougher rust removal rather than fine work. Plus brass ones tend to leave a film of brass behind. To add insult to injury, those brass wires are sometimes only brass coated steel so they transfer brass and scratch your part. I would recommend a steel wire wheel if I knew of a brand name Dremel compatible wire wheel that was consistently scratch-free because even if you don't have a Dremel, HF sells knockoffs that are very handy and small for $10. If I could find something affordable, scratch-free, consistent in quality, and readily available for most anons (and not out of stock for weeks at a time) I'd recommend one.
>>64461888A Grobet carding wheel is like $20-40 depending on the exact model and are excellent quality.
>>64461953O fug I might have to buy one of those then.
look up slow rust bluing on jew tube. or spray the metal with salty hydrogen peroxide and use rust converter from the auto supply
if you prefer a metallic finish, try happish's semi-chrome polish. I had an oldie that i polished and did not want it to rust while i figgered out a plan. it stayed shiny and i gave it a few more coats and it looked like chrome plating
>>64456993don't be a pussy and hot blue
