Blueing Problem
Anybody out there have an idea. In the process of restoring a fire damaged Model 70. The barrel is a pre-64 220 Swift. As received at the shop covered in rust and melted polymer.
Stripped with wire brush, hand worked with 220 and 400 grit paper, polished with 220 and 400 buffing wheel, hand worked with 0000 steel wool , lacquer wiped and boiled in clean water...Worked with Marks Express rust blue, rust brown, Brownell's cold blue creme, and "blue Wonder" all to no avail...still have a charcoal grey tone and no real dark blueing. The metal white still shows through. At a loss to have metal take a blue...any direction?
Paul
Mountain Magic Gunsmithing
Stripped with wire brush, hand worked with 220 and 400 grit paper, polished with 220 and 400 buffing wheel, hand worked with 0000 steel wool , lacquer wiped and boiled in clean water...Worked with Marks Express rust blue, rust brown, Brownell's cold blue creme, and "blue Wonder" all to no avail...still have a charcoal grey tone and no real dark blueing. The metal white still shows through. At a loss to have metal take a blue...any direction?
Paul
Mountain Magic Gunsmithing
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May be a good time to look at having the gun nickel plated or parkerized at your local gun smith. My brother bought a Browning BPS that was full of rust and had it refinished / parkerized for $80. 0 -
i've had some success blueing 'problem blueing' fire damaged guns. it seems the rust is imbedded it the steel and no amount of polishing (short of surface grinding) will get it out. polish the rifle to the desired finish (400 as above), now make a weak muratic acid solution (50% water/acid) and dip the rifle for about 5 seconds in this solution. neutralize immeadiatly (a dip in hot soapy water). then blue by what ever method you want. this seams to eat out all the little pockets of rust that screw up a blueing job. you can buy muratic acid at most hardware stores. I usualy do this as part of a normal hot blueing operation, hot cleaning solution-hot water rinse-acid dip-hot cleaning solution-hot water rinse-bluing solution-hot water rinse-nuetralizer solution-hot oil dip. 0 -
Just a shot in the dark here--is the barrel possibly stainless? Also possible, a very high nickel content nickel steel barrel, common on the older pre-'64s. I have had these refuse to turn blue in my hot tanks until the salts hit 305 degrees and the barrelled action was shocked in cold water a couple of times. But, I've never had one that wouldn't blue at all unless it was stainless. If anything, fire will soften barrel steel, and if you have ordinary carbon steel it will blue easily. Because fire takes the temper out of steel actions can be unsafe to fire unless re-heat treated, and a certain amount of liability attaches to the gunsmith that does any work on them. 0 -
I also think it may just be a nickel steel barrel, commen to the 220 Swift back then. Higher bluing temperatures should take care of it if it is.
Gun control is hitting what your aiming at.0 -
Hey guys;
Thanx for all the input! Will give it a try and run with it. Agree on the action liability, nothing leaves the shop till it is shot extensively and proven safe. Have done several fire damaged in the past without a hitch, but realize the politically CYA conditions we exist in these days.
Paul
Mountain Magic Gunsmithing0 -
If the barrel got hot enough in the fire, you might actually have a surface level case hardening problem that you are dealing with. 0 -
If it melted the stock i think that the above post may be correct 0
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