Currently working on a Winchester 94, I was polishing the receiver and noticed this odd discoloration around the location for the “finger lever pin stop screw”. It seems to be getting more visible the more I polish. Any idea what this is and if it’ll be showing up as a wart after I blue the gun? Gun was built around 1969….

Was it once nickel plated?

I’m not sure what the discoloration is, but i have seen it on other Model 94 during polishing. Winchester used a few different bluing processes during the 60s and into the 80s as they tried different casting and metals in the Model 94. As a result, you won’t get a good color using standard bluing solutions. Dulite offers a solution that they state will work. I got poor results with it and had to strip is and polish it again. My recommendation is ceracoat as an alternative. All the other parts will blue nicely.

Well. Right after I posted this I dug into it a little more……yep the receiver was originally “black chromed” or some crap. Looks like it’ll be getting the cerakote treatment. Honestly it’ll probably look better than the factory finish did. Glad this thing isn’t a collector’s item.😳.

Iron plating so it can be blued

Does rust blue work on those 94 receivers??
Chuck

"Gunsmith's Kinks" offers interesting suggestions on blueing this type of Winchester and other problematic castings.
Mike

They have a tendency to turn red purple

Yep. I don’t want the reddish purple. I’m going to have the receiver cerakoted. The rest of the metal will get the “usual” blacking/bluing. The cerakote looks much better than the original black chrome, it actually looks very nice.

That is a good idea

The "Kinks" are intended to avoid the red purple color. Do you need an actual "paint room" to get a good Cera coat job?
Mike

I’m sending the polished and prepped metal to a shop that specializes in the application. Cerakote offers several different shades of black along with a myriad of other colors, the stuff is tough as nails too, it’s like a ceramic baked on coating…..the receiver will get the “satin” black finish that isn’t as shiny as the black chrome…looks more like high polish rust blue. Quite attractive. The rest of the metal will be blacked using Dulite salts. It’ll look good when it’s finished up. The rifle was kept in a damp basement in Washington state and the exterior metal was very rusted. Lots of draw filing and polish work on this one. It’s a friends gun so I’m doing the job as a favor.

Dustin, if you can remember please post some pics pf the receiver with the satin black finish. Sounds interesting as a finish for a really rough weather gun, or truck gun.