bluing steel with a torch

Add in the 250F+ temperatures of the salts when they hit your skin, and youre both burned thermally and chemically in seconds. Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full pricewine, food delivery, clothing and more. it washes off with water. The bottom of the crucible is opened allowing the contents to drop into the rapidly bubbling water. Keep a grade B fire extinguisher nearby in case of a fire. Woodworkers doing furniture finishing will use 000 and 0000 wool, and they hate oil on their wool for rubbing down oil finishes. To heat this, I use a Coleman camp stove and a 15# jug of LPG gas. }, This is a great time to point out that leaving guns in gun cases, especially the woolen/fleece cases, in the back of a closet, is one of the most sure-fire ways to rust the value completely out of a gun. 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. Acetone is also useful for de-greasing the barreled action. You might be able to start at 320 grit. The part you want to place in the receiving part is cold often just placed in a freezer for a few hours. Note: I know a plastic container is pictured but always use a metal one! Use a coffee can or similarly shaped container as your quenching chamber. If you want it smoother/shinier, you can polish up to 600 grit, with wet-or-dry paper. You heat the outside member only when you do a shrink fit.). You can not do this method with Aluminium because it won't reach the temperatures required for bluing, it will just melt. The book claims they used wait for it "boiling gasoline" not making this up to clean them. It greatly helped me to learn how to blue a gun perfectly at home. ", informative and did not use technical language and concepts that would have left me floundering and none the wiser. 3D Printed Futuristic Space Age Wall Clock. You are nitre blueing here. Hang the trigger group again, re-stock and you should be done. Torch 3 years ago. WebBluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust using a black oxide coating. you may benefit from the use of a gas lense as well. "https://theshootingmystery.tumblr.com/", Black oxide provides minimal protection against corrosion, unless also treated with a water-displacing oil to reduce wetting and galvanic action. I used Brownells Plum Brown, a product that requires that the barrel be heated to 275 degrees to activate the reaction. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You want to be in the range of 600 to 650F. To remove pitting and keep the barrel profile intact requires skill with a file, and that requires hands-on training. Sign up for wikiHow's weekly email newsletter. Quenching the steel rapidly cools it so the alloys inside harden together. Repeat 3 times. It is usually sold in a 1lb bottle for $3, you'll need 3 or 4 pounds probably. It provides the stainless steel surface with a layer of protection, giving rust and corrosion resistance while reducing potential glare as well. Dont. You work on nice guns! We strongly advise that you only push through with this process if you are absolutely confident that you are able to perform the necessary precautions. Browning a gun gives you a nice, even brown patina finish of red rust on a gun. 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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 13 in 1 Metal Shell Welding Torch Nozzle Tip Cleaner For Welder Soldering at the best online prices at eBay! 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 This article received 28 testimonials and 92% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. It takes practice. "logo": { Various processes are used for the oxidizing process. it takes a long time to heat up a long (ie barreled action length) tank that is, oh, three barrels wide. Still, you will find that cold blues dont last. After Just dont. Steel Pull it out of the tank and place on a drain rack. I can't stress how important the degreasing step is! "Cold" bluing is generally a selenium dioxide based compound that colours steel black, or more often a very dark grey. Thank you, DG! Brilliant blues. It's worth noting that there can be some additives in motor oil that release hydrocarbons when burnt which is a known carcinogens to the body (in other words: Bad Stuff!). I use a pickling paste. Now securely hold your piece with whatever you have chosen. You should keep guns in a safe, if you can. This will keep the bluing from adhering to the sharpened edge. 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. Battery acid is childs play compared to blueing salts. to blue / heat anodize stainless steel When putting water in your boil-out tank, use distilled water if you have water with high mineral content. The hotter the steel, the further the oxygen can diffuse through the oxide coating, so the coating builds thicker before it protects the steel from further oxidation. 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. Youll get a dark spot right there. "description": "If you want to find out how to blue stainless steel, then you've come to the right place. It is usually inadvisable to use cold bluing as a touch-up where friction is present. There wasnt a whole lot of pain just yet until my buddy took the safety bottle of vinegar solution used to neutralize the alkaline NaOH salts, and then the pain was there. It was left in a flannel gun case in the back of a moist closet for 25+ years. I think I was drinking heavily (and likely doing stupid things in my shop with high heat and flammables at the time, possibly while juggling chainsaws) at the time I made that comment - without reading carefully. The easier of the two methods, hot bluing only requires some degreasing agent, a heating apparatus (a blow torch is perfect for this), and any kind of oil. Next you hold it in front of your heat source until a blue oxide layer covers the whole blade edge. Theres a reason I didnt pursue a career in chemistry. The colours range through straw, gold, brown, purple, blue, teal, then black. Glad that there are folks like you around. Spray down the whole barreled action with copious amounts of WD-40, inside and out. The tempering reduces the amount of martensite and thus makes the steel softer. Dont touch the metal with your bare hands since it could cause severe burns. If you are new to the subject and are in need of detailed instructions, then youve come to the right place. Cold blues will The higher temperatures of the other processes as well as their caustic nature could weaken the soldered joints and make the gun hazardous to use. 2. No. Youll need some shop rolls, ranging from 180 to 400 grit (typical 4-packs are 180, 240, 320 and 400 grit, in 1, 1.5 or 2. Free shipping for many products! Share it with us! For the chemical, the bluing solution should be either Oxynate No. At the end of this heating process the crucible is removed from the oven and positioned over a bath of water with air forced through a perforated coil in the bottom of the bath. You then oil or wax over the finish when youre done. Pour in some acetone, and while wearing rubber gloves (dishwashing gloves are OK), put in a pad of 0000 steel wool, swish it around and pull it out. Its nice when something can be re-used a time or two, especially when used in diversified ways. Depending on the manufacturers manual, youll have to prepare roughly 6 to 8 tanks to perform the bluing effectively and efficiently. Its a good process, but it isnt a 1:1 replacement for blueing. If youre interested, just ask and I can provide more details. I like using acetone to strip the heavy oil on guns, because it lightens up the oils and makes them easier to strip with a water-based cleaner. I think DGs method is a lot safer than mine. Then wipe off all excess oil and look at your beautiful finished object! 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). You need to adjust the boiling point of the salts for your altitude. Answer He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns. How to Blue (Bluing) Steel Using Oven Or Torch and Oil 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. When youre done and have neutralized & washed off the Express Blue #1 solution, you then should spray down the barrel with water-displacing oil. While the rod may heat some by conduction, it wouldn't get hot enough to start the color-forming process. Now, using the information above, you should have little problem bluing your firearms on your own. Heat the area with a torch until it stops sweating. The mixture is heated to 310 to 321C (590 to 610F) and the parts are suspended in this solution with wire. Even at room temperature, the salts are highly caustic and will eat into your eyes or skin in seconds not minutes. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. As mentioned, cold bluing can be done at room temperature with decent results. Wear thick gloves so you dont burn yourself. 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?). Next, suspend the components in a cleaning solution tank to get rid of dirt, oil, grease, and crud. | 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. Could I use stainless steel earrings that I have got? Youll want to clamp on the barrel directly under the sight youre about to drift out. Even a fingerprint will affect the consistency of the colour. Haha. I have also had good results with 5w/30 motor oil, I've also used two-stroke oil with good results. 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. What did you use for polishing your pieces and Im guessing you polished then added the chemicals after?Thanks, Joe, Question Old school smiths use something called washing soda to strip oil off guns. However, rust bluing small areas often match, blend, and wear better than any cold bluing process. DG thank you. Commercial products are widely sold in small bottles for cold bluing firearms, and these products are primarily used by individual gun owners for implementing small touch-ups to a gun's finish, to prevent a small scratch from becoming a major source of rust on a gun over time. When youre using hot blueing salts, youd better be on top of your game, or you can seriously injure yourself. Heat the Steel. If the sights need to be stripped & blued, follow the same procedure, but dont polish on them. You will get it. Higher carbon contents will take longer to heat. Im asking because theres a guy on YouTube recommending Brown Express first, then several layers of Blue over that. I have in the past few years became more and more. Just let any residual matter evaporate/dry. You can reassemble the gun after. These work by depositing a coating of copper selenide on the surface. Thats how vigorously we de-grease guns before starting blueing. Ships from and sold by Direct-Wholesale. Then you pull it out and scrape off the oil along the blade edge. You can get a IR non-contact thermometer for less than $20 at Harbor Freight. [ 5 years ago, I found that heating will turn steel silver ~> gold ~> violet ~> blue. 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. For more information on using a blowtorch and protecting the steel, scroll down! Its much cheaper anyways. If there is any finish left on the metal, it will interfere with the bluing pr If the magnet doesnt stick, its ready to be pulled away from the heat. With. Heat the gun parts. very easy way to get a blue finish on steel - Fit and Finish "dateModified": "2022-03-27", Cold blues will react with steel at room temperature, but you get more aggressive reactions when you heat the gun to, oh, 150 to 200F. The cotton gloves insulate your fingers from the heated barrel, and they prevent oils from your skin from getting on the raw steel. 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. "Bluing" is the process of oxidizing steel to create a durable, corrosion-resistant layer. "name": "Shooting Mystery", . } Polish to at least 400 grit. Gas burners can usually do the job for this. List Price: $18.64 $18.64. I am using bronze, is it for a polish? Usually they would pack the parts in crucibles and surround them with leather, wood, coal,bone etcThey would heat them up to 1200F to 1500F and hold them at this temp. My first time wasnt a stunning success. Very true. I didnt drop outta my mommas womb being able to do this stuff. Christopher Graham writes all the content and reviews on this site with the help of his team of hunters and shooters. Gee, Im thinkin Duro or cero coat maybe even Krylon might be a good enough.. And then there is the difference between general care and storage vs available daily carried protection pistols living in a some sort of Holster (nylon or leather) , good, bad, take them out or leave them in? That doesnt happen easily or by accident. The differing rate of cooling for each area produced a different color creating that rainbow effect. In colloquial use, thin coatings of black oxide are often termed 'gun bluing', while heavier coatings are termed 'black oxide'. I wish this article had come out sooner, since I did not know that 0000 steel wool may have oil in it. How to Blue (Bluing) Steel Using Oven Or Torch and Oil Method OOMAN 2.28K subscribers Subscribe 872 112K views 4 years ago My apologies for the background If you tempered the steel with a blow torch, set the metal on an anvil or another large steel surface to conduct the heat. "publisher": { -A heat source. It is hazardous. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. steel gas coverage is another big one. Let them cool down as you take a closer look at the bluing effect. fascinated with blacksmithing, but have not had an income to even get it started. 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. What is your opinion of the 2 to 1 lye and potassium nitrate bluing solution? "https://twitter.com/Shoot1ngMystery", Just use distilled water. http://cdn.spectrumbrands.com/~/media/Spectracide/Files/MSDS/SpectracideStumpRemoverGranulesSDSApr15.ashx. Hot. Ill be saving this for the future. If youre using acetone to de-oil, dont be afraid to do it more than once. The ideal setup is a pair of long sleeve gloves along with splash goggles and a face mask. "https://www.pinterest.com/theshootingmystery/", While I am certain that I could do it myself, you already have all the bits and parts and stuff so it is worth my dollars to buy a gunsmiths time to have this done for me. Interesting and informative as always. The process isnt intended for bronze. Remember the oil is probably gonna release some smoke/fumes once the piece is quenched so as said before: please do this step in a well ventilated area. this article statement 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. Im not responsible for marital discord as a result of gun projects attempted on the kitchen stove. 3 years ago How do I harden a steel hammer so that is lasts longer and is more durable? This process is also the only process safely used to re-blue vintage shotguns. "author": "Christopher Graham", But since this was my first project, with an inexpensive kit as a learning tool, and as I intend to do this again with a much more expensive kit, my trials and errors and your voice of experience will be very useful the next time around. Drill bits and gun barrels are common examples. 2023 All Rights Reserved by Shooting Mystery. The de-greasing you do directly affects the uniformity of the browning or blueing. kitty litter (I would recommend the unused variety). In fact most guides no matter their material cast iron to bronze and often bearing races are installed the same way. While still hot and while wearing rubber gloves rub the bluing compound Into the steel with the steel wool. You wouldnt need salts. Some people might not have a tank long enough to contain a barreled action to boil out. Its a pretty straightforward process. 2. For the process your metal should be nicely polished for the best results.The more shinier the polish the more your end result will glow. I can' . Similarly, stainless steel parts may be immersed in a mixture of nitrates and chromates, similarly heated. Wear thick gloves and a face mask before you quench your steel so the water or oil doesnt splash onto your hands. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/8\/81\/Harden-Steel-Step-1-Version-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Harden-Steel-Step-1-Version-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/8\/81\/Harden-Steel-Step-1-Version-3.jpg\/aid1214287-v4-728px-Harden-Steel-Step-1-Version-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"