Ithaca Model 37 Rust Blue

I acquired this Ithaca M37 in 1985 when I was 19. I was a tinkerer even then. Over the years this has been a project gun. Stock refinishes, new stocks, recoil pad(s) etc. One thing I did was cold blue the receiver. As cold blues tend not to be very durable, over the years it became a nice gray. At one point I bought a new vent barrel, so I had this gray gun with a nice blue barrel. My success rust bluing a Browning A5 barrel 2 years ago inspired me to tackle this project.

So here we can see where I was starting


The entire receiver group, trigger guard, and trigger were polished by hand to a 320 grit. I did lightly draw file a few deeper scratches.


Since the original slug barrel only had a few worn spots, I didn't polish it bright, nor some of the other small parts. The beauty of rust blue is it can be done over existing blue.

Here's the receiver/tube and the slug barrel rusting up in the steam cabinet


And the trigger guard


My boiling setup


And my carding wheel in a drill press


I think it came out quite well




I also replaced the Pachmayr pad I put on at some point with a repro Ithaca Sunburst pad


I think this little project turned out pretty darned good. I'm not a gunsmith, but I play one on TV!

Beautiful refinish!

Well done! Bluing job looks nice. Can you explain what bluing process you went with?

Well done Sir

Like the title says, rust bluing. Apply chemical, put it in humidity until it rusts. Boil, red rust converts to black rust. Card black rust, it's blue underneath. Repeat process until you're happy.

Rust bluing is so authentic and looks great. Well done on your Ithaca. I have reblued a few guns that way also with great success. I had to once recreate a broken piece of hardware for an elk mount dating to 1867, and used that method to finish it.

Nice work! It looks great.

What chemical did you use?

I am working on a 1920 Colt Police Positive and there are a lot of different solutions to use.

Is your carding wheel a Brownell's product?

Yes, I got the wheel with 2 rows of bristles. They have a 4 row one for only a few bucks more, I might pick one of those up. My pictures don't show it, but also have the toorhbrush size one for tight spots, plus degreased #### steel wool. That's how I got inside mag tube.

"What chemical did you use?" As ask by Durango Slim, I like the results and wonder whose blue chemicals you used? Kudos, the results are great.

Just the Brownells Rust Blue solution. It's a lot less expensive than most others. Granted, I haven't tried the others, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I also did a Browning A5 barrel 2 years ago

If I did this right this should be a link to the thread from 2 years ago:

My first rust blue!

Wow! Excellent work, and very timely. I was just talking to my brother the other day about doing my 37. I let him keep it at the camp and being mostly bare metal it got a case of freckles. It had some already. So rather than keep touching it up I thought rust bluing would look nice on it, especially since its not almost 80 years old now.
Yours turned out fantastic. Great job.

There are 2 types of Rust Blue.
Express Rust (also called Quick Rust or Hot Rust bluing)
Slow Rust (also called Cold Rust bluing)

Each uses it's own soln for the rusting process.
What works for Express Rust won't work for doing Slow Rust Bluing.

Wiping the parts down with a thin coating of soln and letting them rust naturally (or in a 'Damp Box') is Slow Rust Bluing

Wiping the warmed up parts down with soln and they immedietly turn a slight brown color and go right back into the boiling water tank to turn Blue/Black....That is Express Rust Bluing.

Popular soln's for Slow Rust bluing are Brownells Classic Bluing Soln & Laurel Mtn Forge Bbl Brown

Popular soln's used in Express Rust Bluing are Mark Lee's Express Rust Bluing Soln. also the old Herter's 'Belgian Blue Soln' now sold again by Brownells.
( I don't personally care for the Belgian Blue as it has Mercury Bichloride in it. Most of the older Express Blue solns did. That makes them work wonderfully, and I used a lot of it early on. But Mercury isn't a good thing to scatter around the shop and house in the debris you are carding off the parts each cycle.
Birchwood Casey Barrel Brown for muzzle loader builders was another good one. It also had the Merc in it. It has since changed formulation to delete it. But it did work great as well.
I'd stay with Mark Lee's for Express Blue. Works great and no mercury.)


Slow Rust blue takes longer of course but is considered the classic blue finish. Express Rust Blue can be just as nice a finish but it can give you fits sometimes as small blemishes appear during the process and you have to take care of them while the part(s) are still hot. Handling the stuff can be a juggling act.
Slow rust lets you take care of small things more at your leisure and you don't feel rushed.
With a dampbox, or using the steamed up shower, you can get a coating of rust on the part(s) in 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. So 4 and more cyles a day is not hard to accomplish.
4 or 5 will generally finish a job.

Leave internal areas of frames and other parts free of the rusting soln. That way you don't have to get in there and try to Card them with small brushes or steel wool. Those areas are left 'In the White' as a rule when doing Rust blue. Then given a quick brite polishing by hand after the bluing is done. You will note that style of finishing on most European arms like Mausers, MAnnlicher , Luger pistols, etc.
US mfg'rs did the same, not coating the insides of actions and parts with the rusting soln and leaving them in the white. But as a rule they were mush less carefull about it and some soln slopped over the edges at times
and can be seen as blued streaks on the inside of frames and the like. Alos they generally made no attempt to polish up the insides of the actions, frame rails, etc on the parts afterwards.
Custom makers and 'smiths did though, like G&H, Hart, and others.

Hot salt bluing came around in the mid 1930's in Europe and that blues everything inside and out without the need to Card or otherwise polish any surfaces after bluing. So everything is blued when using Hot Salt.

Nice job on the Ithaca. I like the simple set ups too.

That is nice, thanks for posting. I have been looking for a good project gun to try rust blueing.

2152hq said:

Leave internal areas of frames and other parts free of the rusting soln. That way you don't have to get in there and try to Card them with small brushes or steel wool. Those areas are left 'In the White'...

Click to expand...

Although I didn't get a picture of it, I actually ran the solution inside the bottom of the action up to the first milled cuts for the left and right shell latches, and at the front up to the opening for the mag tube. That gave me a blued finish "up into" the receiver opening as far as needed for appearances

Nice job on the refinish! I've got the four-row Brownells carding wheel. I use the same drill press mounting as you do. Also have the "toothbrush" version.

I use the solution from Blog | Rust Blue. The stuff that Mark Novac uses. Here's his [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nWVI_3Lo0Q"]video[/ame] on rust blueing.

+++1 on Mark Novak's videos. I really like how he explains things. His rust bluing videos, as well as Larry Potterfield's, were the first ones I watched and they convinced me this was within my skill set.