Got this old Taurus 66 .357 mag I'm gonna play with though it was a little ugly . Had a thing of this super blue stuff lying around so though why not since it was kinda ugly and I think someone tried painting it at some point...



Watches some videos , wire brushes it real good steel whool then de greased it . Painted on a layer , washed it with awem water then wd-40 and repeated that like three times and ..eeghhhh i don't think it look worse but can't say it looks much better

Ive used Inasta Blue with good success before

Have couple of shotguns I cold blued. Key is getting all oil and old finish off

What tree frog said, and I also use a heat gun to warm the metal up before applying the blue.

From someone who works in a plating shop and does hot bluing ( light black oxide finish ) , cleaning is everything . Need to clean it down to the molecular level. No impurities at all. Any impurities will ruin a bluing job.

Time in solution is also key. Bluing is a light application of a black oxide finish. If I pull a part out of the black oxide tank early it is blue because the black oxide is so thin you can see the steel through it. A good black oxide coating is black as it is thick enough you can't see the steel anymore.

Crager what cleaners do you use today? The motor shop’s here complain that the stuff they can use now are very poor cleaners compared to what they used to use.

CRAGAR, is there any cold blue out there that will come close to a hot blue finish? The best I've found is OxyBlue from Brownells and it's a get by at best. Not to hijack WDs thread, this question ought to fit right in.

Cold blue is for touching up a blued STEEL firearm, that pistol looks like a pot metal POS. Real blue does NOT peel off.

I don't have an exact list but we use some nasty strong stuff. Acids - bases , detergents and lye based solutions. Some paint/varnish remover that I hate because it is real nasty stuff. I dress like a bum at work. All of my crappiest clothes as I ruin most of what I wear even as being careful as I can. Little droplets and splashes make tiny holes in my clothes which turn into bigger holes with washings. I ruin 2-3 sets of clothes a year.

I'm sorry , I have very limited experience with cold bluing. About the only thing I can tell you is it is no where near as good as hot bluing/black oxide. Cold bluing takes much more time to get a good coating. I've done a shotgun barrel in the hot bluing tank that was done in 10 minutes. Cold bluing is much slower , maybe an hour.

the peeling was the before

Sounds like pretty good cleaners.

Thanks CRAGAR. Well, like Diogenes with his lantern roaming the Earth looking for an honest man, I'm always on the lookout for a cold blue that REALLY works. Haven't found one yet.
Like Bob said, cold blue is good enough for touch up only. I have had very good luck Parkerizing here at the house but that's not blueing.

We use pro grade chemicals. Semi restricted sales , the people who make the chemicals don't want to sell to the general public as it is dangerous and toxic. We have to document and provide proof to the sellers who we are and what we are doing with their chemicals because of liability concerns.

I have currently 100kgs of sodium cyanide in the shop to add to my tanks as needed. They don't sell that to just anybody.
100kgs is enough to kill a small city if put into a city water supply.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

bingo

Boy y'all really think I'm delusional huh

Wolfie , seeing what you started with and what you had to work with - cold blue , in my opinion , you did pretty good.

I've seen much worse , you did OK.

Now If I did it with professional equipment and chemicals and a proper hot bluing/black oxide , I could have done better , but yours looks good.

Wolfie did u remove the paint that was already on the gun before blueing?

You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson here is don't try.