Removing blue from hammer and trigger?

[Grayfox]

I just purchased a used gun that has been reblued. Unfortunately, the hammer and trigger were blued as well.
Has anybody ever simply hit the parts with blue remover? Will that work or will it just make and ugly mess of the parts?

 

[tennexplorer]

How about swapping them out? What is the gun?

 

[BC38]

You can use blue remover, or even vinegar - but you need to remove them from the gun if you don't want to bugger up the finish of surrounding parts.
You can also create a pretty decent facsimile of color case hardening on the stripped parts with cold blue. There are videos on the 'net showing how to do it.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

You can also use Lead-Away cloth to remove the blue. Be very careful because it will remove the blue from the gun too. It should be used on stainless guns only for the intent it was sold for. It works very well too.
Birchwood Casey, Hoppe's and the original Kleen Bore all make versions of the cloth.
Below are the links for the company sites but you can probably find better prices from online stores or maybe not lol. Amazon has all 3 and I think Midway USA does too. Check the size of each package when comparing prices. I have not used the Hoppe's product but have used the other 2. I prefer the Kleen Bore product.

Lead Remover & Polishing Cloth - Birchwood Casey

KleenBore Lead Away™ Gun Cloth | KleenBore

Buy Quick Clean Rust & Lead Remover Cloth and More | Hoppes

 

[OLDSTER]

Soak the parts in white vinegar for a few days.

 

[gwpercle]

If you don't want to disassemble the gun and do the blue removal correctly ...Don't try it on a assembled gun ... just leave the parts blued , it's not going to hurt a thing and would look a lot better than the probable terrible results that will happen trying to get the blue off with the gun assembled ... Trust me on this one ... I can see bad things happening .
Gary

 

[stansdds]

You will definitely need to remove the hammer and trigger first, but vinegar is cheap and effective at removing bluing.

 

[Krogen]

First, I have no knowledge on the subject. Never stops me from asking questions though. . . .

Wouldn't the case hardening and maybe the colors still be intact? I suppose if somebody buffed the parts heavily, the thin layer of hardening could disappear. I always figured blued triggers and hammers were the result of lazy "smiths." Seems unlikely they'd put enough time into it to buff though case hardening.

But then again: What do I know?

 

[2152hq]

The case hardening is usually still present unless the pre-bluing polishing was so agressive that it cut the metal down below it. That would be removing anywhere from about .004 to .010" from the surfaces generally.

The metal doesn't take a 'case' depth evenly over the entire surface especially on complicated shape parts.

That colors themselves are just on top of the case hardening.
The colors are measured in Microns in thickness.
They are very easily removed from the surfaces during any polishing even w/o removing any of the metal from the surface.

Some casehardening colors wear better than others. Just an end effect of the process used. Lots of variables involved.

;;In attempts to avoid parts warping, a shop I worked in tweaked the process so as to still get vibrant colors but avoiding any real case hardening.
The parts were soft.

But the colors were easily worn off the surfaces as well.
Many of the completed guns showed wear on the edges of the C/Colored frames and parts after simply being re-assembled.
Nice if you wanted a 90%+ gun.
Guns that were actually used had trouble with galling as well.

If you 'strip' a case colored part, simply chemically remove the case color and then blue the part,,quite often the swirl/cloud pattern of the original color case hardening will show in the new bluing.

Parts that are case hardened and are going to be re-case hardened should be first annealed (softened) for best results and color.
Heating the stripped parts to about 1100F and let them cool on their own.
A small furnace with controls and a steel box to place the parts in covered with charcoal works very nicely.
The charcoal burns and gives off CO so the air (oxygen)can't get at it. That way you don't get any heat scale on the parts. Easy to clean up.

Or just heat them up to the 1100 and then cover them with wood ashes or sand and let them cool. Then remove the heat scale with dilute muriatic acid.

Case colors can be replicated with cold blue quite well. Different brands work differently and work best if the steel is not hardened.

The breech bolt & trigger on a Meriden Model 1915 Pump 22 are faux CaseColor
Done w/ Cold Blue

 

[glowe]

I just use Naval Jelly or other commercial rust remover. Drop the parts into a bowl and cover them with Naval Jelly. Usually takes less than 15 minutes to remove the blue and wash up with soap and water. Do it in the garage, since it has an odor.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

No matter what you use to remove the Blue,
I say take that Hammer and Trigger out of the Gun!
I gather we are discussing that very nice 1926 you posted just the other day.
Don't risk messing up the Blue on that Gun!

 

[BC38]

No matter what you use to remove the Blue,
I say take that Hammer and Trigger out of the Gun!
I gather we are discussing that very nice 1926 you posted just the other day.
Don't risk messing up the Blue on that Gun!

AMEN to that!

 

[Krogen]

Thanks 2152hq!! Great response and very informative.

 

[Grayfox]

Thanks for all the advice. And yes, I absolutely do intend to remove the parts from the gun.

 

[Hondo44]

I usually use Naval Jelly as posted by glowe. But I don't soak the parts, I wipe it on and off with a soft rag. And repeat if necessary.

It and any other of the chemical cleaners will actually etch the metal finely if soaked. So I minimize the exposure to the chemical.

To replicate case colors I also use cold blue, but after warming the metal with a hair dryer (which should be done for any cold bluing), and I apply a very light coat of oil. Then apply the cold blue with a Q-tip just dabbing it on randomly to resemble the random pattern of case coloring.

If your result is not similar to case coloring, wipe it off again with Navel Jelly and try again. The technique is important and practice makes perfect.

 

[glowe]

I usually use Naval Jelly as posted by glowe. But I don't soak the parts, I wipe it on and off with a soft rag. And repeat if necessary.

It and any other of the chemical cleaners will actually etch the metal finely if soaked. So I minimize the exposure to the chemical . . .

Good point Jim, but most reblued or re-plated parts are polished, while original hammers, triggers, ejector rod knobs, etc. were not. I actually want to etch the surface to remove the gloss and end up with a more realistic appearance. One that comes to mind was a relatively nicely re-plated Model 1902 that was totally plated. I stripped the nickel first, soaked the parts, and re-colored the hammer and trigger. Using a small artist brush and Brownell's blue, was able to mottle the surface just enough, as well as blue the star. Before and after images are below.