Connecticut Preparedness Community Forums

I don't have the facilities to do Nickel plating, but, this is a restoration of a locked up rusted pistol that was in a tackle box. Slow rust blued, niter blued pins and hardware. Re-finished woodwork and mercury stripped the bore of lead.















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How many cycles for the rust bluing? Also, what solution do you use?

I have used every manufacture of rust bluing compounds including some from a book published in 1914. I like Mark Lee express blue. A pair of nitrile gloves, a torch, carding wheel and a pot of boiling (in my case city tap) water and I can do a 1911 frame in around an hour and change.

1. Clean and thouroughly degrease
2. Finish the metal to be blued to the desired surface finish you want (bluing doesn't hide anything). Rust Blue like a 320 or so finish.
3. Clean and thouroughly degrease
4. Put on some nitrile gloves
5. Get a pot of water boiling
6. Warm the part being blued with a torch till its just uncomfortable to hold
7. Rub express blue on in long complete strokes. (the heat will make it dry almost instantly)
8. Boil in pot of water for 10-15 min. (time is dictated by part size, you want it to reach same temp as water for at least 5 min)
9. Remove from boiling water and blow water off leaving no watermarks.
10. Brush under a carding wheel (available from brownells, basically a very fine wire wheel)
11. REPEAT from step 2
12. Keep repeating till you get the color you want (darker with more repetitions, but as some point the steel simply won't rust anymore "thats good")
13. Warm metal up with torch and oil liberally, and leave till next day. Then wipe down well with lint free absorbant cloth.

It sounds like a lot, but once you get rolling it goes by quick.