doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Heat bluing

I totally agree, thank you Lefusil and bushveld.

I've always loved the colors produced by nitre bluing, but have been reluctant to try it because of the associated dangers.
I think that, for the amateur like myself, the method I've tried is a relatively low-cost, low danger way of doing heat bluing.
What I didn't understand. until I started this thread and thought about the replies, was the mentality that I had when I was torch
bluing versus this method. With torch bluing, once I had the color I wanted, I would stop immediately, here once the temperature
is stabilized that you should keep the piece at that temperature for several minutes.

At one time I had access to a whole drum of the salts and thought of setting up a 50 cal ammo can as a tank I could slide under a work bench when not in use. My shop was then and is now in my basement, so I decided to avoid the danger and possible smell, and just go with what I already knew. The smell was why I usually used water hardening steel for screws, D-bit reamers, etc. If I had to quench in oil, I tried to do it while my wife was gone shopping. It didn't always work, and we "discussed" the smell when she returned. I still think PhysDocs hot plate idea is a great one.
Mike

Hi Mike


If you try the hot plate method let me know how it works and contact me if you have any questions. I will do an update
here next time I use it.

Fred

Fred,
Thanks, I will, but realistically I am too old now to finish all my easiest projects. It doesn't help that I can't stand in front of my lathes and mills long enough to be productive. I will have to use the methods I already know. You should learn from my problems and try new ways to do things while you are still young and fit. That way, you can improve things for people coming behind you. A good example is your current project.
Mike

For this type of project, one could consider using an old (small) kitchen pot with clean sand in it. Works just fine to stabilize and even out the temperature, just stick the part in the middle somewhere, near the thermocouple. It's good for uneven parts, but I don't think it's too durable. Thanks for the pictures, and looks like the finish line is in sight.

This golf putter when offered by Scotty Cameron was what they called “oil can” finish. Its probably almost 30 year old. When sold new, they recommend oiling often to prevent rusting. I let my kid use it and after a few years I asked for it back. It had a complete coverage of orange rust. Needless to say I had a few choice words for my kid. So I took it from him cause these have become a bit expensive to Titleist Scotty Cameron putters. I was just going to polish it and hot blue it. But decided to try heat with a torch. It took at least 10 minutes to heat it up to start seeing any color change. But consistent moving the torch around the whole part and eventually it came to the color it is now. I quenched in burnt motor oil. It came out close to exactly like originally new. I’m happy with how the color came out. It has nice pleasing blue and purple finish.

What gauge?

Looks par-fect to me.

When warching the temp he kept his eye on the birdie :-)

Hi Keith

Sorry for the delay in replying, I've been playing around with both methods over the summer and discovered this, that if I take a soft wire wheel used for carding, that the wheel will remove the heat blued finish but not the charcoal blued one. In fact the charcoal blued finish looks better after carding.

Fred