Nitre bluing

[gunrunner32]

I wonder if anyone else out there has done any Nitre bluing. I've been messing with it to get the temperatures figured out. So far it's been a neat process. I search the Internet and see a bunch of old colts and 1911s with parts done. So who else has guns Nitre blued? Here are a few of my "projects", one is a CZ SP01 with the controls (ones that were steel, aluminum doesn't seem to react very well with the heat). Then I wanted to see about larger objects so I did the slide of a Colt Series 70 1911 and barrel. I get the blues around 590-625 degrees and the gold was done around 500 degrees. A lead smelting pot and the Nitre salts from brownells seem to be good for small parts, I had a friend make me a stainless box to get the slide done. I'll get pics up once my iPad figures out the site.

Edited May 11, 2016 by gunrunner32

[DaveTN]

I don’t know about Nitre, but bluing is becoming a lost art as it may be near the price of the gun to have it done.

I wanted an S&W model 19 reblued in the high gloss original blue it once had. A guy in Christiana did it for me after I did the prep and polishing.

I thought this was something I might want to do for retirement income, but I can’t get an FFL where I live; so there goes that idea.

If you could get the process of hot bluing down, and charge a reasonable rate, and get an FFL; I believe there is a fortune to be made.

Edited May 11, 2016 by DaveTN

[gunrunner32]

I used to be set up for hot salt bluing, but with how caustic it was to all my other equipment it started costing me money to run. Prep is entirely too labor intensive,  much like this was, in the controls of the 1911, slide and barrel there was 10 hours if not more to polish them. Also, there are other finish options that are easier and cheaper for both the end user and the applicator/gunsmith. I agree bluing is a lost art and unfortunately I blame my generation for a lot of the skilled labor jobs in this country being lost. The general knowledge of "kids" (18-30) for things like plumbing, electrical, welding, masonry and carpentry (let alone the "artistic" aspect of any of those fields) is drastically lacking in comparison to our fathers generation. Technology has ruined us....as I sit here and type on a computer...haha.

Edited May 11, 2016 by gunrunner32

[xtriggerman]

On ‎5‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 10:26 AM, gunrunner32 said:

I used to be set up for hot salt bluing, but with how caustic it was to all my other equipment it started costing me money to run. Prep is entirely too labor intensive,  much like this was, in the controls of the 1911, slide and barrel there was 10 hours if not more to polish them. Also, there are other finish options that are easier and cheaper for both the end user and the applicator/gunsmith. I agree bluing is a lost art and unfortunately I blame my generation for a lot of the skilled labor jobs in this country being lost. The general knowledge of "kids" (18-30) for things like plumbing, electrical, welding, masonry and carpentry (let alone the "artistic" aspect of any of those fields) is drastically lacking in comparison to our fathers generation. Technology has ruined us....as I sit here and type on a computer...haha.

Amen!

   I used to do hot bluing for years and the biggest issue with it was how to get rid of the dead salts that float to the top. Brownell's has a neutralizing process that's more intensive than the bluing its self! If any of you guys remember an outfit called Numrich Arms, they had to dissolve the company on paper and open it by a new name The Gun Parts store because they polluted about 7 homes water wells with dead bluing salts that were located near the store. It was a legal maneuver to shake the damage law suit.  That nitre blue reminds me of the perfect nitre blue you used to find on those Swedish 96 Mauser rear sights. You can do the same thing with a oxy/accet torch on small parts. Just remember if the part is hardened, going over 500 deg F will start to degrade the hardness. Generaly, 500F is the stress relief heat treat number on hardened parts that require it. You can slightly harden soft metal parts by bringing them up to gold and cold quench.

[xtriggerman]

2 minutes ago, xtriggerman said:

 some redone nasties

 

Edited May 15, 2016 by xtriggerman

[gunrunner32]

I did take the parts to 500 initially. The gold color produced looked good on the barrel, but it wouldn't have looked right had I kept it on the slide. I'll hopefully be getting the screws on my Uberti Cattleman ready soon, just can't seem to find the time at the moment. Here's the gold slide and finished product. So far 25 rounds of "test fire" has gone flawlessly. 

 

[gunrunner32]

8 hours ago, xtriggerman said:

 

Those turned out looking amazing. This one was fairly bad, pitted and what not. I was told not to worry about the pitting, still did some magic on the flats at least. 

[hipower]

Very nice work.