Strange Addition to Finish

[Retired W4]

Yesterday I picked up a 5 screw 3 1/2' 357. It was covered with old dry oil and carbon, but while cleaning it I noticed an odd splotchy difference in the blued surface. Hoppes didn't phase it. Tried alcohol next but it just smeared stuff around. Went with acetone and that got it all. It ended up looking pretty good for an old LE gun. I'm thinking someone sprayed some sort of gloss coating on it.

Has anyone ever run into this.

 

[alwslate]

Might be due to being left in a holster for years. It seems that there acids in the leather than can cause damage to bluing over a period of time.

 

[Protocall_Design]

Maybe it was wax? A lot of people wax their guns.

 

[Retired W4]

Maybe it was wax? A lot of people wax their guns.

Thinking about what it took to remove it, you might be right. Maybe some old school spray on wax, not Ren wax. Maybe Johnson's. All I know is it took acetone to remove it. The gun is fine now...posted on the Revolver section.

 

[JOliver]

I have seen old oil coat an entire gun and look just like a clear coat, even had one ... an old Winchester 42 that was purchased and we all swore the blue had turned brown,was brown all over and uniform. When I got it home and cleaned it to my surprise it had the nicest blue- that coating did its job but gave it appearance of a much poorer finish. It took acetone for me to get it off safely as well.

 

[fleabus101]

I have seen silicone products cloud bluing. You may not know some products may have silicone in them. Long ago some rem-oil gave me a cloudy blue problem on a '88 model new classic 29 hunter model. It may have been the newer bluing factory process that was involved in that case. Don't know..
I've used Kroil or some blue tube wenol mixed w Kroil very very lightly to rub out cloudy blue effects.
YMMV...