A related question for the adept on a post war Win M12 proof steel barrel with solid rib that was rust blued possibly by Simmons and has developed a plum color cast. Can this barrel be degreased and re rust blued without polishing, in other words doing more applications, carding etc. on the existing bluing? Thank you for replies.
Scuff the bbl down with something like scotchbrite to cut through the finish that's on it now.
You don't have to take it to sparkling brite white new look polish. Just remove the reddish color of the old blue job and even up the surface color to a gray tone.
The new rust blue will take nicely to that surface prep and you won't be battling any of the old plum color underneath it.
The scotchbrite will polish up a bbl very easily too.
I use the maroon and grey color pads a lot. They blend in regular grit cloth polishing nicely too.
I don't remember what grit polish they represent. The maroon is coarser IIRC.
**The reddish look to the nickel steel bbls is usually a sign of a bad hot salt (re)blue job. Bad temp control, depleted salts, ect.
Though the factory method to blue the solid rib bbl was to rust blue it because of the soft soldered rib installation, who knows what has been done to these guns in their many years of history since.
Simmons rust blued them too AFAIK in their installs both aftermarket and for the factory.
Worth a careful check of the rib itself and it's solder joint along the bbl for any weak detached spots from a hot salt blue sometime in it's life. Easy enough to fix it now and then do a nice reblue job.
