Tequila Shooter Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 I had to do a repair to a pistol this weekend and needed to cold blue some spots that the blue was missing. I tried Oxpho-Blue from Brownells and was less than impressed. The repaired finish was very thin even after multiple coats, so thin that when I polished the barrel (with Flitz) the Oxpho was rubbed out in some spots. I’m hoping that there’s something better. Anyone know what gunsmiths are using or if you’ve had good results with something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 Make sure the area is completely grease and oil free. Non-Chlorinated brake cleaner or pure acetone works well. Alcohol and nail polish remover leave behind a film. Yes nail polish remover is mostly acetone but many contain other chemicals that leave a residue. Try warming the the area with a hair dryer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 Low humidity will impact blueing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tequila Shooter Posted April 5, 2021 Author Share Posted April 5, 2021 19 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said: Make sure the area is completely grease and oil free. Non-Chlorinated brake cleaner or pure acetone works well. Alcohol and nail polish remover leave behind a film. Yes nail polish remover is mostly acetone but many contain other chemicals that leave a residue. Try warming the the area with a hair dryer. I cleaned the area with alcohol, I didn’t realize that it would leave a film. The metal was warm to hot, I was doing a silver solder repair. What do you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001 Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 I will jump it to say , I use oxpho-blue , most of the time I have used 44-40 and Birchwood Caseys at times I feel that the blue needs to cure at least 36 hrs to set , I prefer to let set 3 or 4 days Chickasaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgavin Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 This is a nice review of tests on various cold bluing products.https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/gunsmithing-projects-techniques/390731-evaluation-several-cold-bluing-products-w-pics.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Original Lumpy Gritz Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 Heat the area to be blued. OLG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 Clean steel very well before use to remove any oils - I use carb cleaner. Metal warm enough to just sizzle the OxphoBlue as applied. A heat gun is better than a hair dryer for this. Apply at least 3 coats. Between coats, use FINE steel wool (000 or 0000) to lightly scrub between coats to only leave the part of the bluing that sticks tightly. Wait for all liquid to dry and the fine rust to develop as a gray dry film before steel wool "carding". Maybe an hour. After carding with the steel wool, then clean thoroughly again - steel wool is soaked with oil! Oil the final coat a day after you get the repair matching the base metal. I use Rem Oil because that's the oil usually have out for general gun care. Overall, I find the OxphoBlue liquid works better than any other cold blue, and I've tried a bunch. It takes paying attention to how to do it right. Videos and tip sheets from Brownells are your friends. Any cold blue is a very toxic liquid. Lock it up when not using it. Don't store it in any safe or container with steel parts that you don't want to rust. Like you, I initially had very thin and easily rubbed off patches. Now I don't. good luck, GJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tequila Shooter Posted April 5, 2021 Author Share Posted April 5, 2021 @bgavin thanks for the link. It was a good read (and funny) and after reading that I think I’m going to have to go back and try it again. @Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 you’ve touched on something that bgavin’s link also mentioned, steel wool between coats. I may have been too aggressive using the polish and doing it too soon. Thanks for all the advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 3 hours ago, Tequila Shooter said: I cleaned the area with alcohol, I didn’t realize that it would leave a film. The metal was warm to hot, I was doing a silver solder repair. What do you use? I haven't touched up blueing in several years. Like you I had issues. Discovered that the nail polish remover i was using had addatives that was contaminating the area after it dried. In figuring this out I also discovered that a little heat helped a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TN Mongo, SASS #61450 Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 I've had good success with Oxpho Blue. I try to only apply it carefully to the small spots that need to be touched up. A little trick that has helped me is to use several coats of the blue until I got the color I wanted and then applied a little gun oil to the area. The next step is to take one of the small buffing cylinders (wool/cotton - I'm not sure which) that came with my Dremel tools and buff it at a very slow speed. I found that this really helped it blend in to the surrounding blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palmetto Traveller Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 I also use the Oxpho Blue after a thorough cleaning with Acetone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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