doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Polished receiver?

I almost hate to suggest this but it works. And for the record I would never do this except in this type of situation where the gun doesn't warrent much money spent for improvement.

Brownells had a trick where you can degrease, then warm the frame to where it is just getting too warm to hold for very long. Not hot enough to damage anything. I suggest an old hand held hair dryer. That way you can't get it too hot. Then dab on oxphoblue and it will turn into a pretty good representation of case hardening colors.

I used it on a friend's gun with a polished frame and it sure looked better. My friend was amazed.

This gun shined like mirror when I bought it. Very light scuff with 600 grit, fine wire wheel then a solution of Boric Acid at about 180 degrees F for 30 minutes or so.

I have used cold blue and browning solution for muzzel loaders applied with Q-Tips. It creates confusion and may pass for used case coloring. Save this for field grades that need just a bit of help to look honest.

bill

The method described by Hammergun & Bill is what an Ithaca Service Manual recommended for refinishing the frames of the Perazzis they once imported. These guns had heat treated alloy frames & were give Faux case colors from the factory. Ithaca recommended Numrich's 44-40 blue but I tried Oxpho as well & found it worked the same. My first experience with this method was on a Stevens 94 single that a gentleman wanted fixed up to hang on his wall in remembrance of his dad who had used it. He had just asked me to blue it but I tried this & if he had not liked it was just going to strip, then blue. He could not have been happier. I tried it a few more times & always got good results. It of course will not pass for a genuine bone color hardening but is about the best alternative /I have seen & unlike the hot tip of an acetylene torch does not heat anything up enough to damage original hardness & no danger of warpage etc.

Thank you all (well, almost all) for your replies. I will save this information for future reference as the deal in question is unlikely to materialize given the gun's much adulterated state.