If you want to blue or apply a blue finish to your firearm, you must understand how to do it and what will and won’t work. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours to blue a gun.
Steel is protected with a finish thanks to gun bluing. Imagine it as a thin, protective shell. This offers resistance to rust and corrosion. Longtime gun owners are aware that it does not provide full protection. Although less quickly than unpainted metal, blued steel can still rust or corrode. To keep the metal on your gun protected, you need good gun oil.
In reality, the coating is a kind of bluing solution-controlled rusting. Depending on the type of work you’re doing, a different rust-bluing solution is required. Cast iron, stainless steel, steel, brass, and other materials can all be blended.
I’ve been a hunter all of my life. I’ve spent the majority of my life working on firearms, and I recently opened a gunsmith shop where I fix people’s firearms.
Table of Contents
Things You Will Need
Here is a list of the essential items. More information is provided in each subsection.
Several of the techniques listed below require a pot large enough to submerge the components underwater. If you’re going to use a lot of guns, this needs to be a heavy-duty item. It’s pretty harsh using the chemicals.
• A rust remover.
• the bluing substance, which is a caustic salt mixture.
• Coldwater.
• A heating source.
• Handling equipment for cleaned gun parts.
• Patience.
What Is Gun Bluing?
Gun manufacturers and owners have been blueing firearms for centuries to enhance their aesthetics and resistance to corrosion. The red iron oxide, or rust (Fe2O3), on a gun is treated with a solution to turn it into black iron oxide (Fe3O4) during the bluing procedure. Guns are shielded from damaging pollutants by a thin layer of protection that is created during bluing.
Because black iron oxide has a blue-black hue, the process turns a gun barrel blue. The slide, magazine, frame, and even small parts of your gun can be blued in addition to the body and barrel. However, some authorities advise against bluing gun springs.
The most common bluing techniques for gun parts are cold bluing and hot bluing. In the section that follows, we will go over both approaches.
What Is Gun Blue Made Of?
Depending on the product you purchase, a gun blue solution may contain different ingredients. For instance, some cold blue solutions contain a selenium dioxide-based compound that will give your firearm a dark-gray or blackish hue. Additionally, nitric and hydrochloric acids are present in some cold-bluing solutions.
Mercury bichloride and an alkali salt solution of sodium hydroxide and potassium nitrite or sodium nitrate may be present in hot blue solutions. Combining these substances helps prevent friction in firearms and red rust.
How Long Is Gun Blue?
Bluing gun parts can maintain the look and functionality of your weapon. You will need to periodically reblue your gun because bluing does not last indefinitely. Particularly if humidity is low where you live and you keep your weapon dry and clean, high-quality bluing can last for decades.
Does Gun Blue Prevents Rust?
Rust is more easily fixed by gun bluing than it is avoided. You need to oil and clean your gun frequently for the best rust protection.
After using your weapon, some experts advise performing some light cleaning. If you use your gun infrequently, you can perform a deeper cleaning once a year, or twice a year. Your gun will typically need to be disassembled for a thorough cleaning so that you can clean every part.
If you frequently go to the range with your gun, you should oil it at least twice a month to keep it from rusting. Gun owners who don’t use their weapons often should oil them at least once per month. If you live in an area where humidity encourages rust, regular oiling is especially important.
Hot-bluing A Gun
In the past, blueing a gun would take days and special tools. Now, in just a few hours at home, you can hot-blue your firearm to give it a stunning blue-black finish.
Before dipping your gun’s parts in a heated bluing solution, you must clean them as part of the hot-bluing procedure. After cleaning the gun, you will rinse off the bluing solution. However, keep in mind that stainless steel and steel firearms benefit most from hot-bluing.
Cold-bluing A Gun
Cold bluing a gun does not require heating a solution, unlike hot bluing. Cold-bluing, however, can be removed by friction with fabrics or other materials, making it less long-lasting than hot-bluing. Furthermore, it doesn’t offer as much corrosion resistance as hot bluing.
You need to clean, polish, degrease, and dry your firearm before cold-bluing it. Then you will spray your gun parts with the cold-bluing solution. You can clean the gun of rust after 12 hours and reapply your bluing solution. Every 12 hours, you must repeat the cleaning and bluing procedure in order to fully restore your gun.
How To Blue A Gun?
Do you want your gun blued? If so, below is a step-by-step guide on how to reblue a gun with the hot-bluing method:
1. Polish Your Gun Barrel
The first step in rebluing your gun is to empty the magazine and take apart the gun. Next, polish the barrel and any other rusted surfaces. Additionally, you can use this time to clean the gun’s body of any scratches or pits.
For the polishing, we advise either 0000 steel wool or 600-grit sandpaper. Without scratching or marring the surface, grade 0000 steel wire wool can polish metal and remove rust.
2. Cut A Good Length Of Soft Wire For Your Gun Barrel
To dip your gun parts in a hot bluing solution, you’ll need a 20-inch piece of soft wire. To immerse and suspend the gun part in the bluing solution, you will tie one end of the wire to the gun part and hold the other end in place.
3. Thread The Wire Through The Barrel
When the soft wire emerges from the other end of the gun barrel, bend the end of the wire into a hook. By doing this, the barrel won’t be able to slide off the wire. Separate wires are required for the slide and frame. You can put smaller gun parts in a stainless steel basket before lowering it into the bluing solution. Do not blue your gun springs, please.
4. Submerge The Gun In Cleaning Solution
Put on safety gloves and soak your gun parts for at least 15 minutes in a cleaning solution. A liquid hydrocarbon mixture called naphtha is advised by experts. You could also use sodium triphosphate or something like Ballistol, FrogLube, or Hoppes Elite. After your 15-minute soak, scrub the gun parts to get rid of any remaining grit, grease, or oil.
5. Rinse The Gun With Cold Water
Your gun parts should be removed from the cleaning solution after soaking in it, and then the cleaning solution should be removed with a mild dishwashing detergent. The detergent should then be completely removed with water. Hot water will complete the task more quickly and thoroughly than cold water, which will take longer to completely remove all traces of detergent.
6. Heat The Bluing Liquid
Your rinsed gun parts should be dried and stored separately. Pour your hot bluing solution into a pot or other metal container big enough to accommodate your gun. The pot’s contents should be stirred until there are no remaining lumps. Boil the contents of the pot until they reach a temperature of at least 275 degrees Fahrenheit or the temperature recommended by the product instructions.
7. Dip The Gun Parts Into The Solution
Each gun part should be dipped into the bluing solution while being held by the soft wire attached. We advise only dipping one part of the gun at a time if your pot isn’t big enough to fit them all in at once to prevent overcrowding. Additionally, you must completely immerse each component to guarantee that the bluing solution coats every piece uniformly.
Submerge the metal basket containing your gun parts in the bluing solution, then stir the basket to evenly coat each part. The hot bluing solution should be left on each component for 15 to 30 minutes. When you’re satisfied with the gun part’s new blue-black finish, you can remove it from the bluing solution.
8. Rinse The Gun Again In Cold Water
To get rid of any remaining bluing solution on the body, wash each gun part under cold water.
9. Dip The Gun Into Boiling Water
Put the parts that have just been rinsed into a pot of clean, boiling water. To eliminate any traces of bluing solution that might affect the performance of the gun, immerse each component in water for at least ten minutes.
In order for the hot water to permeate and clean the crevices, ornate parts may need to soak in it for up to 30 minutes. You might need to separately clean and blue any soldered parts of your gun with a cotton swab if it has them.
10. Soak The Gun In Oil
Before putting the gun parts in water-displacing oil, remove them from the hot water and dry them off. After letting the components soak in the oil for about an hour, wipe them down, then put your gun together. The oil will strengthen the new blue-black finish’s ability to resist corrosion while also shielding your firearm from deterioration brought on by contaminants like sweat and body oils.
Conclusion
People frequently prefer to hire professionals to perform bluing, also known as rust bluing. Working with inexpensive gun barrels or scrap metal is something you can do if you want to invest some time in it. The properly blued metal won’t be harmed by a standard cleaning solution for guns. You can blue any kind of gun once you master the technique.
An expert gunsmith or gun appraiser can tell the difference between a professional job and an amateur job. Generally speaking, the professional’s work won’t have an impact on a gun’s value. The value of the firearm will be reduced by a subpar job. Try it if all you need to do is recoat that dove or duck gun. Consult a professional if you want to give a pricey gun, an antique, or a family heirloom a new finish.
