Rebluing an Old Revolver

Are you grilling it?

>>30010539
Polish the absolute living fuck out of it. Make sure it is spic and span and clean as a microchip in a clean room. THEN put it in the tank. You're hot bluing, right?

Anyone got ArcticFox's guide?

I'm on my phone so I don't have the cap

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>>30010582
Yeah bitch won't melt

>>30010539
nice grill

>>30010663
How much water in there?

>>30010680
None

I was going to get an old revolver parked.

It was rusty in a previous life, and jamal decided to sandblast it.

>>30010713
That's your problem.
Hot caustic bluing is done with water and salts. This is the Royal blue S&W and Colt finish.
Nitre/heat bluing is done with molten salt alone to control the temperature and will ruin the heat treating of most things put in it. This is never done to frames, cylinders, or anything that has a crtical function. Instead it's mostly used for pins and screws.

>>30010787

Guess this thread ended quickly.

>>30010787
So add water?

>>30010864
your pretty fucking smart.

>>30010787
This.

Also what salts are you using and at what ratio? I go to a gunsmith school and the formula we use is 65 parts sodium hydroxide, 25 parts sodium nitrate, and 10 parts sodium nitrite.

Start with water and add the salts, then heat to a boil. It should boil at 275 Fahrenheit. If it's lower, add more salts. If it's higher than 285 Fahrenheit, add more water. If you put the parts in at 285+, they'll rust instead of blue.
Now add the parts and wait for 30-60 minutes. During this time, monitor the temp of the solution. If it gets above 310 Fahrenheit, your parts will start to rust. Either pull out by then or add more water to keep the temp down.
After pulling the parts out, rinse them with water and then let them sit in a tank of hot water (not boiling. steaming is good tho.) with a little laundry detergent for a few minutes. This neutralises the bluing salts and prevents it from rusting afterwards. Then cover with water displacing oil (do not use wd-40. It can fuck up fresh bluing. There are special oils for this purpose.) Allow most of the oil to drip off.
After most of the oil has dripped off, cover the parts with a protective grease, such as cosmoline. Let it sit for 2 days before reassembling. This gives the bluing time to cure and strengthen.

If there is a slight inconsistency in the color, take some hoppes 9 with 0000 steel wool and lightly buff. That will even out the color.

>>30010864
Wait for it to cool first. Depending on which salts you used there may be ammonia offgassing and some spattering when the water is added. Boil until it reaches the right temperature. You can lower the temperature as you go by adding more water.

>>30011029
>gunsmith school
Susanville?

>ITT: Some idiot found out there'a a lot more to hot bluing than just melting salt and dropping the part in.

>>30011088
Pa gunsmith

>>30011090
I bet he's a nigger too

>>30011029
thanks bud

>>30010539
should have rust blued it

Boiling water shouldn't affect the heat treatment of any of the parts.

Surface prep is 9/10 of the work too.
Degrease that shit, then degrease it again.

>>30011136
Explain please

>>30011228
Grease will make a spotty finish.
With rust browning you left the gun develope surface rust. A small humidty tent with a jar of nitric and hydrochloric acid does quite well for this.
You then boil the part in clean water and scrub off the loose rust. Repeat until you reach the finish you want and then oil.

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>>30011136
>>30011228
>>30011342
or you could follow this guide like I did

but you have to use de-ionized water, which may not even be at walmart.

just look at the gallon jugs at the grocery store next time you're there for de-ionized water

>>30011562
de-ionized has the minerals and shit removed, if you have a source of good water for this it would be handy. I have well water and it's hard af, full of minerals.

>>30010539
You look fuckin handsome OP

>>30011342
That's one method. That I believe is called fume bluing.

Another method, called hot rust bluing, is to get a hot rust bluing solution (brownells has some. idk where else). To use this you need two tanks, a room temp one with water and 1lb baking soda and one with boiling water. Dip the gun in the boiling water for 3 min, take out and apply the bluing solution. Put back in the boiling water for 3 more min, take out and apply another coat. After every second coat, lightly card off with 0000 steel wool. Repeat until you get the desired color. Then put in the room temp tank to negate the bluing solution. Then dip in water displacing oil, let drip off, then let it cure in cosmoline for approx. 2 days.

Also make absolutely sure to degrease the shit out of anything you are bluing, no matter the method. And rinse off any remaining degreaser too.

>>30011562
is exactly what I was describing here >>30011631

As that guide mentions, rust bluing doesn't take well to a high polished finish. Don't go above 400 grit, tho for best results go with around 320 grit. For immersion bluing, you can go as high as you want.

>>30011029
This but I did 2:1 sodium hydroxide to potassium nitrate and 295F.

>>30011099
Hey, I was thinking about going to the PA gunsmithing school and was wondering what you think about it?

>>30011029
Tyler/Connor/Richie get out

>>30012652
It's a good school. I've heard from more than just the instructors and students there that it's one of the best, if not the best in the country. On top of that, I have yet to see anyone graduate without having a job lined up. There's a wait list to get in tho, so have a plan of something to do in the meantime if you decide to go there.

>>30016387
Huh good to know. I checked out their website and it looked really outdated so was a bit concerned that the school was also.

>>30010580
>is he smoking it?

>>30016412
firearms are outdated too. the people that recognize that and love them all the same are probably the people that know weapons on an engineering level. i mean, if you want to deduce

>>30016438
Oh I understand that. I just never knew there was a gunsmith school so close to me until recently.
Im currently in the process of putting two 1917 Enfields back together and relaized how much I would love to do this for a living.

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>>30010539
I'll leave this here

>>30011562
You can just use distilled water. But only use it for 2, maybe 3 cycles then it gets too shitty to turn th red oxide black.

>>30010539
how tall are you op? mirin hibernatingbearmode

>>30016894
You are a good person.

EVERYONE SAVE THIS.

>>30017062
Zed actually made that cap for ArcticFox

>I hope he's out of jail and okay

>>30016412
Yea the website is terrible. One of my friends at the school noticed that it almost seems that firearms and good website design don't mix.

As for if the school is outdated or not, the bluing and machining part isn't. I don't think those skills will ever be outdated . As far as stock making goes, they teach how to do it by hand from a non inletted blank. That's a tad outdated because literally every manufacturer carves stocks with a CNC, and most custom shops do that and then just fit it to the person.

>>30018805
Ahh that makes sense. To be honest I wouldnt mind learning it stuff like stock making the hard way first.