rust bluing a blackhawk.

[sheep.dog]

My NM SBH is at the smiths having the 7.5" barrel shortened to 5.5" as I type. The bluing was already in rough shape and I understand that removing and re soldering the front sight will do a serious job on the barrel bluing. I'm a do it myself kind of a guy. Though it might be easier, cold bluing seems to lack a lot in the final finish, durability and protection categories. Rust bluing seems to offer a good possibility of a nice finish and good durability and requires very little except time and patience, and the chemical processes seem to be more stable for a "kitchen table refinish" so I'm looking to give it a go.
I ordered the laurel mt forge barrel brown and have read the instructions on there site and am getting ready to give it a try but I have a few questions for anyone who has done the process on an SA before.
1st, i I'd like to do barrel, receiver, cylinder, and grip frame. Obviously I plug the muzzle, bore and cylinder chambers and remove the internal components, <b>BUT what about the firing pin?</b> I am I've never removed one and it seems like a pain to put back together, can I just cover it with tape or some other way to protect it?
Should I do the parts separately or will bluing the barrel, receiver, and grip frames lead to more consistent coloring?
Should I be concerned about the corrosion changing the size/shape of pin and screw holes?
What other problems might I run into?

Thanks thanks,

 

[WOB]

There is no need to plug the bore or the chambers, just wipe them out after boiling Keep the bluing solution out of them and you should have no problems. It would be best to remove the firing pin, but it is a PIA. I think you can leave it in if you blow the water out of the recess with compressed air after every boil.

Do all the parts at the same time, Even then they might take on slightlty different colors. Rust bluing color and texture is determined in part by the alloy content of the steel and there is not much you can do about it. Alloy steel like 4140 tends to be more grayish blue. Low alloys with less chrome will be more blue. More rust cycles will sometimes darken a light colored piece but I have never seen any increased benefit after about 6 cycles. Low carbon steel will usually turn a nice blue in 4 cycles.

Rust bluing will not change hole shapes or blunt sharp edges. Brownells sells an assortment of fine SS wire brushes made for carding the rust, and I recommend you buy them. They will remove the rust from areas that simpy cannot be properly carded with 4/0 steel wool. LMF solution contains a detergent that will allow you to barehand( with clean hands) the parts while carding and applying the solution. This is a huge advantage over the traditional solutions that require absolutely clean metal surfaces. Distilled water in the boiling tank is a must. Boiling longer than 5 min. is not necessary.
No need to polish finer than 320 grit whe prepping the parts.

WOB

 

[tek4260]

I'd love to see the finished product!

 

[sheep.dog]

Well got the laurel my in the mail today and the gun smith called - my barrel is shortened. The grip frame and cylinder are all ready stripped of their previous blue and the cylinder frame is not far behind. I might leave it in the white long enough to go shoot on Saturday, but will be doing some sort of finish next week. But right now I'm thinking rust brown.....

 

[MtnJack]

Sheep doing the same with a sbh, looking forward to your project, I have a lot of pits to remove from this once stolen gun. Are you going to blue or brown it? What front site will you use? I have been working for a month making every thing flat and also removing all of Rugers machine marks inside the frame. Picture would be great of your project, maybe we will give the top smiths a run for there money ha ha. Be safe Mtn Jack

 

[sheep.dog]

Jack,
I got the whole gun stripped and ready to go, the finish was in rough shape but the metal was OK so I used mostly 0000 steel wool and I,m pretty happy with the results, its not perfect but good enough I think. I've got to say I think it looks pretty sweet with the bare metal and a thin coat of rigs grease. I used the factory sight which will probably be too tall but I'll bring a file to to the range tomorrow and take it down bit by bit until I get it right. The bad photo doesn't do it justice but...

I was originally looking at going for a rust blue but than I saw this: http://singleactions.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gunsmithing&action=display&thread=9929 so now I am kind of torn between 3 options.

 

[Wheelyfun44]

Jack,
I got the whole gun stripped and ready to go, the finish was in rough shape but the metal was OK so I used mostly 0000 steel wool and I,m pretty happy with the results, its not perfect but good enough I think. I've got to say I think it looks pretty sweet with the bare metal and a thin coat of rigs grease. I used the factory sight which will probably be too tall but I'll bring a file to to the range tomorrow and take it down bit by bit until I get it right. The bad photo doesn't do it justice but...

I was originally looking at going for a rust blue but than I saw this: http://singleactions.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gunsmithing&action=display&thread=9929 so now I am kind of torn between 3 options.

Now that's a revolver!!
Can't wait to see how it shoots!

 

[MtnJack]

Sheep.dog that looks great, I will try to do a picture show also but have to figure photo bucket out again. My gun was stolen by a friends stepson and hidden in a dry well for years until found. My friend had it refinisher by some bubba who basically scratched it up and blued it. I could not stand Being in the woods looking at the bad polish job.
From my research my gun is an old model 3screw that was a transition gun, not many made, now that bubba got his mitts on it I might as well make it mine, cut the barrel, flatten and de pit the frame and smooth the action. I will polish to 320 or so and rust blue. If anyone is interested the ser# is 13300.SBH. Such a shame what happens to some of these Rugers, I hope to do this one some justice. Thank you for sharing. Mtn Jack

 

[sheep.dog]

Got my new red elm grips from forum member 41 Magnum today, they look awesome . I threw em on to see if it would help make the decision on what the finish should be. Kind of lousy pictures but you get the idea, any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[MtnJack]

Sheep.dog now you got me thinking of doing a black powder brown job any one ever done it to a blackhawk?

 

[JohnW]

If you rust blue it, I'm going to be watching your results. I have an OM 41 that I will be restoring, and that is one of my options. So I think you should definitely rust blue it! :wink:

 

[sheep.dog]

Sheep.dog now you got me thinking of doing a black powder brown job any one ever done it to a blackhawk?

Jack here's a link to a browned Blackhawk, it looks sweet
http://singleactions.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gunsmithing&action=display&thread=9929

I'm real happy with how my gun shot today so I am gonna do the finish this week. Still trying to decide brown or blue. With the laurel mountain forge solution its the same process and the same chemical, you just submerse the browned gun into boiling distilled water to turn the brown to blue. Looks easy, just time consuming.

 

[sheep.dog]

Well ethughtveryone, I went with a rust blue, used the laurel mt. This is the first time I have ever done a rust blue using any product, a lot of people said then Laurel Mt was the easier way to go, they may be right but it was still a pain in the neck. Worth the work, yes probably but I won't be rushing to do it again.
I dont have the gun reassembled yet so you'll have to wait for pictures of the finished product, but here's how I did it:
-I disassembled the gun, took everything apart save the firing pin assembly which I left installed.
All the bluing had already been removed (see post above)
-I degreased the gun using electrical cleaner
-I plugged the muzzle, bore and cylinders. For my .44 a 7/16 pine dowel was perfect (7/16 = .4375). For the cylinders I put a length a dowel into a spent case so it stuck out about an inch and "loaded it" it worked great to plug both ends. Hint: use a long dowel in the muzzle and 1 long one in the cylinder so you can hold it.

-At this point I just followed the directions on the Laurel MT Forge site- dampened a small piece of cotton fabric with the solution and applied it lightly too all surfaces.

-I use metal cloths hangers to hang the pieces across the top of a cooler and set them in my bathroom. (This pic is after 2 or 3 times through the process, see the nice black coloring)

-To keep the humidity high I ran some hot water in the shower for a minute or 2, every hour or so.
-When the pieces were covered with orange and black/green rust(3+hrs) I set them in old glass casserole dishes, covered them with boiling distilled water and watched the red turn to black. Took out the pieces and let them dry.

-I then carded the black rust off with a piece of denim, toothbrush and pipe cleaners. (This a really dirty job, my hands were covered in black rusty gunk. I didn't dare garb the camera so no pics)
-then I reapplied the solution and started over. Did this 7 times total.
- after the 7th time I deactivated the solution with a mix of backing soda and water, heated it to 140° and slathered it in penetrating oil, the directions said use motor oil but I didn't have any(thought I did)

This is a really time consuming project. I made messes, got dirty, got frustrated. After the first few times through I thought I had ruined the gun-I was searching the classifieds for a new 1-, it was patchy and uneven, the pieces were different colors. It wasn't until the 6th time it began to look good. Even now the sharp edges are lighter in color but at this point I am going to call it what it was an experiment on a cheap gun.

Oh the other experiment I tried was fire bluing the gate and base pin latch....

Pics of the finished product to come soon.

 

[Wheelyfun44]

Man, you a hard working, do-it-yourselfing, son of a gun!

I like it that you are not afraid to break the revolver down and do all this unfamiliar work by trial and error!

I would never have the courage and where with all to get down and dirty like that....

Can't wait to see the finished product....... 8)

 

[cellar701]

Nice! My experience has been that a modest investment in a couple of the Brownells "carding" brushes will greatly simplify the messy part of the process. I think you are really going to like the look and durability of that rust blue. Looking forward to some pics of the finished product.

 

[MtnJack]

Come on sheep we need pics.

 

[Wheelyfun44]

Yeah man, where are the pics?
What else you got to do up there in Vermont? (well.....except shovel snow) :wink:

 

[sheep.dog]

OK OK, I've been bust enjoying all the snow, sorry for the delay.

I think I could have done another round or two of the bluing process as it is a little splotchy, maybe due to not carding the rust well enough between coats. It has an antique-ish look which I like just fine so I'm gonna leave it as is. The flash on the camera and oil on the gun really accentuate the different hues in the bluing and add a lot of glare, there is some blotching but not nearly as much or as accentuatex as the pic some suggest. I'll try to get some pics in natural light tomorrow.

 

[Wheelyfun44]

Excellent job!
Those grips really set the whole thing off!

 

[cellar701]

Looks great! Thanks for sharing. Interesting the difference in blue depth on the gripframe versus the rest, and that is consistent with my experience as well that the different metals take any kind of blue process differently.