doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ansley Fox Bluing

I recently purchased a CE Grade Ansley Fox manufactured in 1909.
it has a 14XXX serial number.

Apparently the forearm had been dropped resulting in damage to
one side bead (matches bead on lower barrel edge), cocking
lug and receiver mating surface/edges. A gunsmith has repaired
the majority of the damage and when all repair is complete
I would like to restore the forearm metal to its original condition.

The trigger guard and forearm frame metal are
blued (the trigger latch and frame are case hardened).
I would appreciate inputs on the proper bluing type/method/
color to have applied to the forearm frame.

Thanks for your inputs and assistance

FOX SXS

They were niter blued,...My C grade of the same era has also a nitre blued top lever (as well as the trigger guard and fore end)
But some fore ends were also case coloured

Best CJ

CJ

Thanks for the expedient response. I'll see if my gunsmith has
the ability to do an authentic Niter blue.

FOX SXS

With all due respect, maybe you'll want to think about this some more before going ahead with nitre blueing on the forearm iron. Certainly the irons on early graded guns were blued... but who's to say it was nitre and not a rust blue? From the standpoint of durablity and corrosion resistance, rust blue is certainly a better choice because it's a chemical reaction (oxide) imparted to the surface. I'm fairly sure the small Fox parts may have been nitre blued but when the factory was rust bluing barrels, why wouldn't they also rust blue the larger parts like the forearm iron? Silvers

With all due respect to CJ and Silvers, if it was blued, I'd bet it was charcoal blued.
Doug Turnbull offers that service.

Steven, I stand corrected, I had a better look at the gun last night and it appears to be charcoal blued

I use the NITER bluing method as taught to me by Oscar Gaddy using Saltpeter with very similar results,...this is not the stuff that Brownell's sells, according to the late Dr. Gaddy all Parker trigger guards were done this way,...I simply assumed that Fox would have also used the method


CJ

Silvers, I believe most of the smaller parts were colored with "heat" either charcoal or niter or perhaps another method I'm not familiar with because it was more efficient and cost effective to do so ,...barrels were rust blued because they were soft soldered,....there was no other alternative

The other thing that stands out in all these older guns is that the bluing on guards and irons is usualy worn off long before the bluing on the bbls,... this along with the high luster they display, (especially some of the trigger guards) is to me good indication they were perhaps done a different way

CJ

CJ, thanks for your thoughful answer. Makes sense. Silvers

FOX SXS,

There are a couple of good pictures of the trigger guard on this thread,...it's charcoal blue no doubt!


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