Brushed Blue Finish

[dangt]

Has anyone here prepped a revolver for refinishing to duplicate or simulate the Brushed Blue as was standard on a Highway Patrolman? For that matter , has anyone come real close to the Early WWII brushed blue used on 38-200 for the Brits or the standard, non-high-polished blue on post WWII commercial guns. I'm interested in what techniques have looked like these original surface finishes, not necessarily the color itself.

Dan T.

 

[2152hq]

Polish the metal as usual, taking it to somewhere in the 320 to 400 range. Don't be concerned with grit lines and what direction they go in too awful much.
The 'brushed' finishing will blend that all in plus show you any spots you missed that still have file marks or scratches from coarser grits showing.

When you feel you have the metal prepared to your satisfaction, the next step is the brush finish.
You'll need a wire wheel, the diameter doesn't make much difference but at least a 6" dia so you can work over the parts w/o bumping into the rotating shaft.

Coat the parts with oil. Anything from motor oil, WD-40, your favorite gun oil in a spray can will do.
You don't need a lot,,just so that the part is covered.

Now just gently wire wheel the part with the oil coating on it. Don't try and follow any pattern of the polishing lines. You are trying to cross polish and blend those grit lines in so that they are not as noticable.

Varying the pressure you use,,the speed of the wheel, the type of oil, how fine or coarse the wire on the wheel is,, you can come up with several different finishes. Of course the steel you are working on makes a difference too.

I use a wire wheel set up on a cheap mandrel. The pulley knocks the rpm of the wheel down to about 600rpm. Nothing fancy. I use the same but separate setup for rust blue carding.
I have done a lot of this with the wire wheel simply mounted on one side of a bench grinder. So what ever full speed rpm is on that,,that works out OK too. Just a bit less pressure and hang on to those parts!


The whole idea is that the oil allows the wire to skip accross the surface without digging into it. The wire burnishes the surface rather than digs into the steel which can give a deepy matted almost pitted look.
The oil also avoids the wire wheel leaving a directional 'track' or path accross the steel that a dry wheel does especially under some pressure. Those path markings are hard to get rid of.

It takes little time to burnish the parts with this method. Look them over carefully. Any spots you missed when polishing that still have heavy grit or file marks hiding will now be glaring at you. Go back and touch those areas up and re-wire wheel the part.

I've used anything from the DYI hardware store 'fine' or 'medium' grade wire wheels to worn out (for rust bluing purposes) carding wheels. The carding wheels are very fine wire,,probably no more than .005 or .006" dia wire so they put more of a shine on than the coarser wheels.
Depends on what you want. It takes some practice to see the results.

It was a fairly common metal finishing technique of the late 19th & early 20th century gunsmiths before the parts were rust blued or color case hardened.
That's how I've gotten by doing this.
Hope this helps..

 

[dangt]

2152hq, thanks. This is exactly what I need. I'll attempt it on my next finishing project. The closest I've come in the past was to rust blue after taking hand polishing to 320 grit. The following pics are close but the color is somewhat grey. THis is a 4" K-22 I repaired and rust blued in 1996.

 

[2152hq]

Nice looking job on the K22.
Rust blue can give you results all over the map as far as color. Many people just assume it'll always produce a nice blue color.
It usually does when used on older guns. But anything remotely modern,,say post WW2 uses steel alloys with things in them that do not want to rust at all.
Add to that different heat treat to the metal and different colors are the results.
Sometimes switching the rust blue formula will give a better color. Some steel won't 'quick' rust blue very well or evenly but will do OK when slow rust blued.

I've gotten that grayish tone on some SxS bbls of guns made recently.
Some bbls like the original mfg Winchester 21's will even give a reddish cast to the rust blueing in bright sunlight. People have told me it's the high nickle alloy in the steel,,I don't know.
Even the Custom Shop had their problems with them.

One trick if you are slow rust bluing is after the last coat of the slow rust is carded off,,then apply one or maybe two coats at the most of a quick rust blue to the part. It will deepen the color quite a bit,, in most cases.

As with all of this every one you do seems to be different. They can fight you all the way to the end sometimes.

 

[Elliott41]

I like the soft, satin finish on your K 22 very much. Good work!

 

[dangt]

2152hq,

One trick if you are slow rust bluing is after the last coat of the slow rust is carded off,,then apply one or maybe two coats at the most of a quick rust blue to the part. It will deepen the color quite a bit,, in most cases.

What is the "quick rust blue" you refer to.

So far, Pilkington's is the only mix I've used. I recently found an online reference to a company that offers Swiss, Swedish, American, and, I think, other varieties of rust blue solutions. I have Angiers book but have not tried mixing my own solution yet. I have , as you make reference to, had numerous problems with different steels. In the right light, the side plate on the K-22 above has color variation with some spots tending toward red-brown. I once attempted to blue a steel Ruger grip frame (investment casting ) for a co-worker and it turned out a terrible red color. I tried etching the surface and finally sandblasted the part to get it to turn out black.

I'm very interested in your personal experiences with different rusting solutions, if you have any to recommend.

Thanks.

 

[2152hq]

For 'Quick rust blue' (r it's sometimes called Hot rust blue or Express Rust Blue),,I use Mark Lee's solution. You can get it from Brownells.
EXPRESS BLUE #1 | Brownells
They sell a Rust blue and a Rust brown soln. You can actually blue with the rust brown soln too,,just boil the parts to turn the color.

Quick rust blue is a process where you create a the rust artificially on the part almost instantly by the use of heat.
Quick Rust Solutions can be used to Cold Rust Blue (though they usually don't work very well). Most Cold/Slow rust solutions don't work out at all if tried in the Quick Rust method.

In Quick or Hot Rust method you either heat the part in the boiling water or with a propane torch to the same approx temp (200F or so). You don't want it too much hotter than that as it will etch the surface.

Immediately apply a smooth even coating of the solution to the hot , dry metal part. It will dry nearly as fast as it's applied and will rust right then and there.
No need to keep going back and forth over and over it try to build up a rust coating,,it only results in making your boiling water tank dirtier quicker.
As soon as you have the part coated,,into the boiling water it goes.Let it boil for about 5 to 10 minutes. It'll turn from red rust to blue/black rust in a few seconds but leave it for a few minutes.
Take it back out,,shake any excess water off. You can gently and carefully blott any water drops trapped in screw holes and other places.
Most will dry right off the part from it's own heat, but you do want to make sure any trapped water is cleared too. Any water will smear the blue surface when you card it.
Handle the part(s) carefully so you don't disturb the blued surfaces with your fingers even if wearing gloves. They;ll be too hot to handle bare handed anyway, but at this point card them on the wire wheel if you have one.

When your done carding, and if the part is still warm enough,,apply another thin even coating of soln and back into the tank.
If the part has cooled off too much,,heat it back up by either placing it back into the boiling water or heat the part back to about 200F with the propane again before applying the next coating.

Takes anywhere from 3 to 10 cycles or coats to build a finish. As with any of these, the type of steel has a lot to do with the final look.
Express or Hot rust works best on the older softer steels. Newer alloys seem to resist the instant rust it produces.
I have found it very valuable in an overcoating or last coating of the slow rust blue as I mentioned in the above post.

It's called Hot or Quick rust 'cause you do it with the parts never cooling down and all in a start to finish process.
You can do several sets (usually 3) of SxS bbls at a time if you're good at it. On a complete firearm like a rifle or handgun,,all those small parts must be handled, coated, retrieved from the boiling water, dried, carded while hot. That slows you down and can be quite a circus some times.
For the bunch of small parts like screws, sights, swivels, pins, ect,,I heat them and coat them with the soln using a small 'acid' type brush. Then drop them into a small tin can with small holes punched into the bottom. I place the entire can into the tank and let the entire bunch boil together.
Easier to handle that way. I dump them onto a couple layers of paper towel to dry, then into a small try or box and over to the carding wheel where I do the bunch all together.
Surprisingly they don't get scratched or dinged up in doing them that way, but it's not like you handle them recklessly.

One of the best older formulas for Quick Rust was 'Baker's Formula'
You can probably find that in one of the older books on rust bluing. It used corrosive mercury compounds. The older 'Belgian Blue' was a Baker's Formula. That's why they worked so well!

Brownells still sells a new 'Belgian Blue' AFAIK said to be the same as the old Herters Belgian Blue. Herters Belgian Blue was a quick rust blue formula that nearly everyone used in the 50's thru the 70's. Then it disappeared along w/Herters.
It had mercury in it. I used a lot of it back when and I can tell you it wasn't a good move.

The 'new' Brownells Belgian Blue seems to also have the merc compound in it.
I bought a small bottle thinking they wouldn't in this era of EPA madness sell anything w/merc in it.
I tried it out and it worked as the old stuff. It unfortunetley smelled very familiar to the old stuff when applied to the hot metal.
There's a very distinctive smell to it.
I did a quick swipe of some of the soln onto a piece of warm brass and there was the silver coating of what I assume to be precipitated mercury from the bichloride of mercury compound in it.
I've never used it since.

(The old bluing compounds containing mercury were not for use on any gun that had inlays on them unless special care ws taken. The mercury would precipitate out or 'plate' the inlays w/a strong adhering coating of the mercury. All those nice gold inlays would appear to be silver inlays and it did not just rub off.
The technique was however used sometimes to touch up the worn nickel plate on some brass framed guns though to enhance their looks for resale.)

The Mark Lee soln's are mercury free. I've used them for the last 25years or so for quick rust blue.
It works just as good and w/o the mercury threat.

I use Laurel Mtn soln almost exclusively for cold rust blue and damascus finish.

I've got small bottles of all kinds of out of date rust bluing solns from yrs back. I've tried just about everything since the early 60's and these are the ones I've settled on.
Others get fine results with other solutions.
Most of the result is due to preparation and technique anyway I believe.
Find something that works best for you to get that result.
It doesn't hurt to know a few of the little tricks though to get you past the stubborn ones.

The water you use can have a big effect on the final finish.
De-ionized, distilled water is the best.
Some that's sold as that isn't unfortunetly.

Some use rain water. That's good as long as it's clean and there's not a lot of chemicals in the air where you are.
Sulpher was a big problem in years past in rain water (and snow) in many areas.

I use the condensate that's collected and pumped off of the central AC unit. Some will say that's no good as it will have copper or aluminum precipitate in it from the coils.
I've used it for the last 25yrs from two different central AC units w/o any problems.
I collect & store about 100 gal extra every summer for use during the rest of the year. I probably won't use all that now that I'm supposed to be retired though.


Sorry for the long post,
Hope this helps.

 

[dangt]

I appreciate the "long post." Thanks.

Your description of using the quick rust blues is how I've used Dicropan IM from Brownells. I suppose that makes it a quick rust blue, right.? I'll give it a try, since I have some of that , as a "last coat" or final appllication on a test piece.

 

[2152hq]

Yes Dicropan is a quick rust blue also. I never was able to get very good results with it and shelved the bottle many years ago.
I had completely forgotten about the stuff.
That's another one that doesn't have any mercury in it IIRC. That's good.
Probably should give it another try someday.

Others have used it exclusively over the years and with excellent results.
As I always tell people there is never just one way to do any of these metal or wood finishes. What works for one person can be a miserable failure for another.
There are so many variables involved beyond the chemical make up of the solutions and coatings themselves that most anything is liable to come about from different people applying them.
Once you find something that works and gets you repeatable results, you tend to stick with it. It can be a lot of work and failures to get to that point.

FWIW,,I tried the acid fume bluing technique for a while too. But it never got me the results I needed. Sometimes it worked fantastic, other times it was a mess. Too unpredictable for me,,but perhaps in a less humid climate it works better.
Nitric and Hydrochloric acids,,each separate from each other and in tiny quantitys (a few drops each) inside a closed air tight box with your parts hanging in there with them.
The acids fumes collect on the parts making them rust. The combination of the two acids is needed to produce what is needed for a rust blue.
Boil when they are 'ripe',,card and place back in the box for another rusting. Bores must be protected obviously.

Too much acid and they pit. Too little and the coating is uneven. Too much humidity and water dropplets form on the steel ruining the blue already done.
When it works,,it's a thing of beauty,,,,when it works...
It was all the rage for a while in the 70's,,early 80's. I think a few custom makes still use the process. Some say the final finish isn't as tough as a regular slow rust blue. The few successes I had seemed to holdup well but it wasn't exactly a large number to test from!
Probably find info if you search 'acid fume bluing' or something close to that if you're interested.
Just another way to make steel blue.

 

[dangt]

I am glad to hear your words about the Fume Bluing . It is described in the Pilkington's instruction booklet that comes with SLow Rust Blue solution, as I'm sure you know. I have thought I should try it someday but have never before met or talked to anyone familiar with using it. I now think I'll put in on the far back burner and try instead another conventional rust blue formula just for experience with something a little different.

Thanks.