Do at home refinish options???

hovercat

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I picked up a worn pre 10 at a gunshow as a project gun. After much effort, I have removed the peeling nickel plating entirely. The steel underneath is smooth but with stained areas where the plating had been missing/worn. A hand burnish with 000 steel wool has it smooth.
As this is a first effort, I am wondering what finish options are available, inexpensive, and practical. Blueing would be within my abilities but the cost of the salts is too much for one handgun, and I would probably have to do much more polishing to remove the stains. I could do that, but will not if necessary.
I am seeking advice for a durable finish that I can apply. I have no concerns for anything but practicality, but I want something more professional than paint. It will probably reside in my truck, and probably carried only during hunting season loaded with snake shot to save a better firearm from the brambles and weather.
The B9 nickel remover from Caswell worked well, but much slower than advertised. Probably 12 hours total in the tank at 140 degrees. I would recommend it, as it did work well. The solution was spent after one firearm, not the 3 advertised. But I only needed to do one.
 
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I would look on Brownells. They have several spray on finishes. Some bake on, some not. However, I have not tried any.
 
Cold bluing is very inexpensive but has it's limitations as to how long it will last and how durable it is. I have had marginal luck at best with cold bluing however there are some here on the Forum that claim great results. I have followed all direction and have tried heat as well and while the initial results look OK, it just doesn't hold up well for me.

Others like the Cerakote style finish but it's not my style. If you picked up the gun really cheap it just might pay (in the long run) to have it reblued professionally. Unless you plan on doing multiple guns it hardly pays to buy all the chemicals, equipment etc. to hot blue them at home. It's also a messy job!

Since Cold bluing IS so cheap, you could try it and if you don't like it you could always send it out. The best of the Cold bluing (at least for me) is either Birchwood Casey Perma-blue or Brownells Oxpho. Both are available in a gel or liquid form.

I did see a video on Youtube from a guy who swears that by using Brownells BROWN (initial conditioning finish) prior to the bluing process he gets superior cold blue results. I have never tried that so you are on your own with that.
 
Although I'm not a real fan (especially on revolvers) of the 2-part sprays. ie; duracoat, cerakote, KG gunkote, etc. they can be an inexpensive way of re-finishing. I did a rough ruger sec. 6 in the aerosol durablue (air dried but oven speeds things up) and after a thorough cleaning and some prep using 600 sandpaper followed by a final de-grease, it's now a somewhat high-luster blue. Total cost was under $50 but I doubt I do any more. Maybe using the airbrush but not the 2-part aerosol. One can will do app. 3 handguns. If you choose to do so, just follow directions (shake well- twice, using light coats) and it wasn't bad.
 
It's sort of messy and time consuming but an old fashioned rust blue job is very durable and has a nice looking satin blue.
Unlike cold blue rust blue gives a professional job that's very wear resistant and looks great.

Brownell's sell the chemical, and all you need is a pot of boiling water and some de-greased steel wool.
Note the "degreased steel wool". Steel wool has oil in it to prevent rusting. Use it as-is on a wood stock or in metal work and you contaminate the surface with the oil.

The modern way is of course, a "spray and cure/bake" "paint" type finish.
Of those the toughest and most durable is Cerakote.
It's more involved then just bead blasting and coating.

Complete instructions are on the Cerakote web site.
Most of the effort is in the correct prep to get ALL oils and contamination off, but you also have to know the correct way to use a spray gun.
All of this is well-explained on the site.

If you apply Cerakote per the instructions you can get a really nice looking and durable finish, which is why many gun makers and custom gunsmiths are using it.
Fail to do it as directed and the finish is substandard, for which the person doing it blames the finish not their failure to follow instructions.
 
Rust Blue

'Slow' rust blue is the easiest and best looking finish. Can easily be done on a stove top.
 
Cold blue can have decent results but knowing which brand to use is the problem as most all claim to be the best. I did a Colt police special that came out more brown then blue.
I used Van's Instant Gun Blue and I wouldn't use it again. Just not a blued looking finish. I had cleaned the gun down to where the gun looked like it was a stainless finish but it still came out more of a brown finish.
I have heard some on forums say that Oxpho does a nice job.
 
Before going to the hot bluing and rust bluing that I do now I tried all of the spray coatings and cold bluing. All finishes need the proper metal prep and cleaning.
If I were to recommend a process other than hot bluing it would be parkerizing. You can buy it from many places but I use Brownells. I recommend you fine bead blast first but you don't have to. Just use 220 grit over the entire gun. You do have to totally disassemble the entire gun but I do that for all guns.
One thing to do that helps with sanding is leave the sideplate on and use flathead screws on all the holes. I have a set just for this. Use a sanding block and sand towards the edge.
You can get the parkerizing as dark as you want. One trick is after the parkerizing use Brownells Oxpho bluing. It gives a nice bluing type color.
 
I've heard the home Parkerizing kits produce a decent and durable finish. Haven't tried them my self, but others have reported good results, FWIW.

EDIT: And I see that tlay was posting his experience with it just as I was typing my suggestion. So there you go...
 
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What no one has told you yet, is a gun that was once nickle plated can not be sucessfully blued.
 
Very interesting. Why is that? Is there something about the plating that penetrates the metal and can't be removed?

Little spots will pop through sometimes takes years to happen. Some shops refuse to do it.
 
Little spots will pop through sometimes takes years to happen. Some shops refuse to do it.

But do you know why? I'm sure there is some reason, and if so, there would have to be some way to prevent it. Now, whether it is practical enough to be worth while, that's another question...
 
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Check out "www.blindhogg.com" he has a recipe for hot blueing that has worked well for me. The finished color is more black than blue and is durable. There are probably more recipes on the net if you do a google search.

Good Luck,
 
But do you know why? I'm sure there is some reason, and if so, there would have to be some way to prevent it. Now, whether it is practical enough to be worth while, that's another question...

The reason is incorrect and incomplete removal of the nickel.
Brownell's sell a chemical stripper that works well. It's rather expensive but can be reused.
The best method of removing nickel is to have a plater company reverse the plating procedure so that instead of depositing nickel on the gun, the nickel is completely removed.

Where it goes bad is when the person removing the nickel uses a poor method or doesn't do a good and complete job.
Then tiny particles of nickel can be left on the surface and especially in crevices.
Then when a chemical finish is applied the gun looks like it has white "freckles" which is the un-removed nickel.

As long a a good job is done and ALL the nickel and any undercoating of copper is removed completely the gun can be blued or processed with any of the chemical finishes.

Most of the professional gun refinishing companies who do plating can electro-strip nickel off and re-blue or park the gun.
As example see APW-Cogan and Ford's among others who offer stripping.
Again where you can have trouble is using a bike or auto plater who doesn't understand gun plating and stripping.
 
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I use Brownells nickel remover and it works very good. I hot blued the gun after and it turned out dark with no spots. Where you get most of the problems with nickel removal is when someone tries to sand it off. Also for some reasons the nickel wants to stay on the recoil shields longer than the rest of the gun.
 
rust bluing

I have done some nice rust bluing on a few AK receivers, the evil bad rifles . the finish is very nice and I have no issues , been at least 8 years . I would not paint any revolver or handgun, did a very nice finish of Duracoat on a 700 for a friend , I just dont like painting pistols/rifles .
I do plan to do my S&W highway patrolman myself in rust blue , maybe I'll ask to do a thread on it.
 
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