Plum colored bluing?

[American1776]

A few of my favorite pistols have blued slides that look purple or even brown in sunlight. They were purchased NIB, but they are older production models. Here's a photo of my Ruger P90, whose slide is a purple / brown color. My S&W model 539 also has the same look.

Does anyone know why the bluing looks purple? Why don't the revolvers turn this color?

 

[Arik]

Revolvers do turn purple. Some of them. Sometimes just the barrel or cylinder. Has to do with materials and how it's blued (chemistry and heat)

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[JayFramer]

It has to do with the heart treat, usually.

On old European pistols a lot of the small parts are that plum color do to them being tempered differently. It's a rather attractive thing I think.

 

[rwsmith]

I don't if this applies......

NEWER S&W blued steel guns will turn violet due to exposure to ammonia, which old time cleaners have, like Hoppes.

They changed the bluing process to a more environmentally friendly method, but it doesn't hold up under ammonia.


Hoppe's came out with 'Elite' that doesn't have ammonia in it.

It doesn't sound like your guns are in this category, but that's one reason for purple guns.

I have older S&Ws and none have turned purple.

 

[OLDSTER]

I know of a collector of the HK P7 pistol. The "plum color" on some of them is actually a desired trait

 

[Sevens]

Some models are notorious for it. In S&W pistols, 39's and 52's show it a lot, especially models from the mid-to-late 1970's and early 80's. With the 52's in particular, the plum color stands out blatantly because the hammer block thumb safety is often much more blue than the slide. In some cases, the slide looks evenly blue and the thb safety is heavily plum.

 

[JayFramer]

NEWER S&W blued steel guns will turn violet due to exposure to ammonia, which old time cleaners have, like Hoppes.

They changed the bluing process to a more environmentally friendly method, but it doesn't hold up under ammonia.


Hoppe's came out with 'Elite' that doesn't have ammonia in it.

It doesn't sound like your guns are in this category, but that's one reason for purple guns.

I have older S&Ws and none have turned purple.

I don't think the Hoppes Elite works near as good as the old banana scented liquid!!

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Once had an early issue Flattop Blackhawk with a Purple loading gate.
Yes, it's on my list of guns that I wish that I still had!

 

[DWalt]

Generally, if the bluing bath is allowed to get too hot, it can get plummy looking. Too much water has boiled off.

 

[rburg]

What we see is any number of causes. It runs all the way from the metal and the way its heat treated to the chemicals used. Its not isolated to the cheap or mass produced guns, either. I've had a couple of P210s with bright plum slides. We often blame it on reblued guns because individual gun shops don't have the resources to really monitor the bath. Even if the metal is properly prepared and the alloys are right, the bath might be a little old or exhausted, or the temp may be a little off.

If you're buying a gun that already has some off color parts you can negotiate a nice price concession or look for another gun. If you look over the gun and anything bothers you, you can be pretty sure it will really get to you over time.

 

[dant]

Basically what Mr Burg said, there are various reasons , from make to make, alloys of the steel used, and as noted above temperature variations, ( Lack of control)even how long the parts stay in the bath.....nature of the beast, some, like Rugers, the parts are castings and the "mix" ( batch) of alloys can affect the color outcome, old Winchesters that used nickel steel, same holds true........
many folks feel and to some extent it is true , that this may be a sign of a "reblue" as they tend to be in a hurry, and fail to control the temperatures/time in bath........we have seen many guns over the years, new from the factory, in time can and will turn purple,,,more so in autos, harder parts ( heat treat)seldom ever see a S&W revolver or Colt Revolver "purple"............

 

[old bear]

I was always told, the plumb color was caused by the blueing solution was to hot and the parts were left in the blueing tank to long.

 

[Targets Guy]

My hands and arms are doing the same thing.

 

[Watchdog]

Old Model Ruger revolvers...Blackhawks and Single-Sixes especially...are known for turning plum...parcticularly cylinders and smaller parts like loading gates.

It's never been considered as something that will devalue a collectible Ruger. At least not by knowledgeable and dedicated Ruger collectors.

 

[American1776]

thanks for the feedback. I suspected it was the bluing process itself.

I used to have HK P7 pistols, and one of those was purple on the slide. I think it looks just fine.

 

[Kinman]

I've seen gun shops that used to do blueing and browning jobs get their parts mixed up...happened to me, I wanted a guy to brown the barrel on my first muzzleloader, he did a very nice job on the barrel but for some reason the breech plug/tang had a black/bluish tint to it. I was not happy, he didn't get defensive and dropped the price in half...The brown job he did was very nice, half the price was good incentive for me at the time so I took him up on the deal. It kinda grew on me after time. I have no idea why he didn't straighten the problem out, but since he was ready to admit a mistake he must have known what he did wrong. I've only seen a few of my handguns and rifles that turned a slightly different color at the receiver vs the barrel or other metal part. Model 70 Winchesters are fairly notorious for changing colors at the receiver, I was told that was due to different metal hardness. I believe wear has something to do with it also. Color case hardening will fade when exposed to sunlight. I have personally seen a beautiful original Model 1885 Highwall that on one side looked like it had just left the factory, on the other side it was faded like a pair of old jeans. It had been hanging on a wall in a house with lots of windows and over the decades had only a slightly silver finish left where all the beautiful case colors had been, as I recall the blue was still present, although dulled.

 

[susieqz]

if i saw a plum colored s&w, i'd snap it up.
i think it adds character.

 

[jessebogan]

I have a model 28-3 that I bought new.I have noticed in the last couple of years that the cylinder and barrel are beginning to turn plum colored. You see it more in bright light, but it did not use to look like that. I figure, it, like me, is aging gracefully...

I also have a model 52 that has a distinctly plum slide, but it came to me like that. Shoots beautifully, don't care what it looks like.

 

[pharmer]

I have a 19-5 with a "plum" cylinder and proper blue everywhere else. I'm not good enough to capture it in a photo. Joe

 

[DWalt]

I have a 1944 German P-38 with a very plummy frame. And it is original. It doesn't bother me at all.