black powder revolver kit im making "right"...

[barnes_gunworks]

this gun was bought by my uncle. the guy that owned it didnt really do anything to it. the bolt for the cylinder was broken, the cylinder wouldnt rotate b/c the breech of the barrel rubbed against it. he also never took any of the tooling marks out of the gun. heres some pictures before i started doing any work,,,

[barnes_gunworks]

heres the pictures after ive draw filed and done a fair amount of stoning..

[Harold_V]

That's quite an improvement!
What is the finishing procedure for such items? Bluing, or browning?

Harold

[Doc Hoy]

I did some work on a rough condition 1863 Remington Pocket pistol from CVA (ASM manufactured). Brass frame.

I polished up the steel parts and hit the brass frame with Brasso.

I did not blue or brown it.

I would love to have some advice on a good home bluing process. I would be looking for a good compromise between good durability of the finish, ease of application and good appearance.

[Doc Hoy]

To get a higher finish on the parts, I wrap sandpaper around a file. Have you tried that technique?

[barnes_gunworks]

its gonna be bright blue unless someone tells me differant, polsih the metal to 400 grit or so then hot blue the metal, fire blue the screws, color case the ram rod and hammer,,,as far as home blueing???? brownells oxypro (going off memory here) cold blue works well, thing to remember that any cold blue will not hold like a hot blue, another good idea is to compleatly degrease the metal (i do it by running it through the dish washer with no soap when da wife isnt looking,,,) heat the metal, would go over 200/150 or so should be enough, then repeated coats of the cold blue of your choice,,, if you get "streaking" take 4 ought steel wool with some good oil and rub it lightly, it usually takes out the coloring and streaks,,,i like to rust blue, but its more complex, and takes a tank about 6"x6"x48" that can withstand 200 degree heat,,to get high polish i alternate directions, going one way with 220 then the oposite with 320, it will show any previous grit scratchs real well...

[Doc Hoy]

Thanks for the update.

I have read a little about cold bluing (not much). It appears that the process has gotten a lot better over the years.

It used to be that if you cold blued a rifle, then took it hunting in the snow, the deer could track you by the blue drops in the snow.

Hope it isn't as bad as all that these days.

[barnes_gunworks]

cold blue is not for protection/ medium use... i would rust blue, it takes a few hours more but is well worth it, in both beauty/protection, brownells has some good solutions, ive used the mark lee one with good results, the main thing is to be absoulty sure that the gun is stripped of all extra impurities, run it through the dish washer like i said, make sure the wife aint looking,,, and that usually works well. a book on all kinds of tricks/info/advise thats worth its weight in gold is brownells gunsmith kinks... the first volume is absoulty worth it the second reviews some of the info in the first, havent read the third or fourth,,,

[Harold_V]

its gonna be bright blue unless someone tells me differant

Thanks. That should look real good!
I'd like to have the ability to do black oxide in my shop. Really improves projects to apply a decent finish.

Harold

[barnes_gunworks]

all ya gotta do is know someonw,, i use a local gunsmith for the dipping ( the polish work is where the labor is at) hes good... ill keep using him till i get my tanks setup, he usually charges $75-100 for long guns, if anyone is interstead, ill ask em and get ya in contact with him....he also does color case hardening, very nice work too, i think he usually charges $125-$150 for prepped work,,,,,if ya have ever heard of alaln harton single action service, this is the guy that he usually uses for case hardning,,,

[barnes_gunworks]

ok talked to me buddy and he said for polished stuff, hed charge $75-$100 to dip it in his bluing tanks, (he also can do parkerizeing) for color case hardening hed charge $100-$125, his name is John Powers and his phone is 281.513.3438,

[already-old]

A simple and low cost form of "authentic old look brown" is chemical rust browning can be done with a very simple set up, at most any home shop with cheap and easily obtainable supplies. This can be done quickly in a mater of hrs for a decent look or a few days for a very deep brown near black coating. This is not the wear away cold blue process. I quite accidentally discovered the process. It will replicate the old "salt rust" browning method used on old fire arms. The old salt box method of browning could take weeks even months.

This simple method uses the common household product found at Wal mart , other grocery and hardware stores "Lime Away"

To do this job if doing a barrel for example get a piece of PVC pipe of at least 4 or 5 times the dia of the part. If a barrel make a little stand that will support you item up from the insides of the tube. Now for the simplest form which take the longest just have slide on caps for the ends of the pipe. Before closing the pipe with your part inside place some a couple of oz of the lime away in the pipe in a small open glass container. Close the pipe with the caps. Now you can either let this set at room temp (takes longer) or keep heat on the pipe with a small room heater blower type. Make sure you oil or grease the bore, I also sealed the bore with a little oiled cotton. To get the feel for this system you need to experiment a bit, with any piece of polished steel, to get the color you want. Its the fumes from the Lime Away that make the brown. Now I got to say that this worked with the Lime Away I used 15 years ago and the formula of this product may have changed since. But it is the phosphoric acid that seems to be the active ingredient. So anything containing phosphoric acid should work. When finished water rinse well and oil. Unless poorly taken care, over time, your product wont easily rust again.

By the way it works on tools to.