We're firing up our hot caustic bluing tanks for the first time. Join us as we show the bluing process on a Winchester shotgun and Colt Walker replica.
Great video. Forty years years ago I worked as an assistant in a gunsmith shop where one of my jobs was to help with the hot bluing using caustic bluing salts. Like you we used WD-40 to prevent rust after removal from the bluing tank. Our safety precautions were a little less refined years ago. We wore safety glasses and elbow length rubber gloves. We also had pretty good ventilation. We generally did hot bluing every couple of weeks, bluing perhaps a dozen or two dozen guns each time, taking several hours. After an hour or two the bluing solution began to splash a bit as we frenetically were moving barrels, receivers and small parts in and out of the bluing tank. Discolored parts were sometimes the result of too high a temperature and those parts had to be repolished. Parts we didn't know were castings, like your 37A receiver would turn purple. And the occasional aluminum part that we were unaware of was a very different kind of disaster. One of my least favorite memories of hot bluing was cleaning up afterward and realizing that the small amount of bluing solution that splashed inside out gloves would make our skin feel soapy. Hot caustic bluing made me appreciate the much more refined and sedate rust blung that we did as an every day and on going process. Again this was a great video. Keep up the good work.
You're right on the money with the name. Admittedly, it's not a good gun oil because it gums up over time, but it works well for this application. Brownell's warns not to use it to stop the rusting/bluing process, but I think they're just trying to sell their own water displacing oil. Of course, Brownell's costs almost 5 times as much as WD-40.😬
I doubt you would ever have a dissatisfied customer given the attention to detail & genuine respect you have for the trade. Thanks again for another great learning experience & happy trails.
I’m so glad I found your channel. You are a wonderful man. Erudite, respectful with a wealth of knowledge and modest too 🤗 I live in Scotland and have always been fascinated with guns. Unfortunately, over here it’s not easy to feed my interest. So I enjoy your well made videos very much. Many hours of catching up to look forward to 😎
I think you definitely deserve an award for your presentation here! To keep up a meaningful cometary while juggling with boiling caustic salts is an art! I know the result of that boiling salt dropping on organic substances will lead to large holes appearing in whatever it touches, the big priority in bluing is the initial finishing, far too many people use the "good enough" approach, but as you prove here, with your clinical clean preparation it pays dividends, the finish you achieved here is excellent, the Colt Walker came out really well and will be a good candidate for your colour case process, but ,as you know, the cylinder of the Walker were never blued, but this one looks to have taken very well. Please do not worry about negative comments, they are made by people that have never done anything, but they heard about it from a bloke in the pub! Keep on enjoying yourself as you obviously do! Chris B.
All of your videos are top notch and I just want to go back through and save all of them as you are a trove of information! Those that would leave nasty comments are surely not as versed as you and likely are displaying their inadequacies! Great video, thanks for sharing!
I've been fasinated with the bluing process since I was a wee lad. Thanks for the education. I new a fella who did some really nice gun work and blueing back in the early seventies. Homer Allen was his name. I bought one of his sporterized Mauser 98s from him. Beautiful piece. He had true genius.
@@timsretired8675 I agree. I saw a plum blued remington 1911 with ivory grips at a gun show and I was mesmerized that I stood there for a good 20 minutes. It was so beautiful that I would've sold my car to get it. But it was just for show and not for sell, the guy told me he blued it himself and was his service pistol from Vietnam. even to this day I still dream of that gun, words can't describe how amazing it was.
Hey Mark, Jonathan Herring here, from LCC Gunsmithing. Glad to see you putting what you learned in to practice, along with lessons you've learned on your own. I love your channel. Keep up the great videos!
Thanks a bunch, Jonathan! I learned from a bluing master. 😉 Thanks for watching our channel, it's much appreciated. Tell the crew at LCC hello for me. Mark
Thanks so much, for another fascinating episode. I have learnt so much watching your videos. We have a cattle ranch in Australia, so I love seeing the country and history of your great spread.
Not that I will ever get involved with the bluing process, but I always learn something from your well done videos. Keep them coming. Especially the shooting ones.
Your choice of WD-40 was spot on for post blue. It has its place (a lot of uses) in the restoration world. Just need to be wise where you are using it. And yep...sometimes the negative comments can amaze. Glad you do what you do.
My compliments on a very good video on the bluing process. You did a great job on explaining the process and safety. I realize that his is not for everyone, but to us old gun nuts this has been great. I appreciate your candor on telling the honest cost of some products, and other possibilities. Once again, my compliments!
Greatly appreciate the professionalism and explanations of the process of this form of bluing! Thank you and God bless you for sharing 🙏😊! Honest and true to gunsmithing enthusiasts! Again thank you from a disabled veteran who loves guns and all of the fine craftsmanship associated with them! Happy Trails and good day sir!
This is one of my favorite ways to Blue small handguns and small parts on shotguns and rifles because it is super easy it is a very dangerous process because of the chemicals that you have to use but it is very easy to do I just wish I had a bigger setup I recently did a receiver on an old Stevens 100 year old shotgun and it came out Plum and I do believe it's because of the high nickel content but it looks beautiful great job man Edit: instead of buying commercial chemicals I use potassium nitrate and lye and quick lime if I need it and it's been working great I've been using the same solution for almost a year
What a wonderful presentation on bluing. This is something I want to learn. I learned my gunsmithing from a gunsmith no former schooling. He sent his fire arms to people that was set up for bluing so I never have witnessed the operation in person.
I do use Outers oils; they are hard to get ahold of but do a nice job. Very nice work on the caustic bluing. I send my work out for caustic bluing but I do rust bluing. I do not use WD-40 because it has an acidic content to it. For water displacement I also use Rem oil made by Remington Arms. I keep praying that Our Lord stops that evil war in Ukraine and that He comes soon.
Me too! I've got the kiln set up, so I've got the hard part out of the way. I just need to get some of these guns out of the shop so I can get busy with the CCH.
Another great video Mark. Thanks for the lesson. Nice job while multitasking the video and the blueing. Ignore any distractor's....most are are just wannabee's trying to be relevant hiding behind their screens and keyboards.
Thanks Jeremy. It was a bit of challenge to get that one filmed by myself. Lots of things going on simultaneously and some pretty critical timing while trying to set up camera shots at the same time. I think it turned out pretty good anyway. Thanks for watching.
What no shootin Mark? Thoroughly enjoyed this hard to film episode. Keep em coming! Look forward to smelling some gunpowder in the coming weeks. Thanks Mate!
Very nice deep blue! In the future if you color case harden that Walker you may want to ask your friend if he'd consider removing the bluing from the cylinder. The original Walker cylinders were left in the white. Great video and great channel. Thanks!
Of course, but he's not particularly concerned with originality in this Italian-made kit gun. As I mentioned, he wanted to protect the metal from rusting.
What can I say that hasn't already been said by everyone one else! Thank you for the show and tell. It explains quite a bit. Mark, I will only add that once you are set up for the case color hardened application that I hope you come up with the correct recipe that will give you all of the vibrant colors that these old Winchesters and Colts use to have when they came off of the production line. Most of the restored CCH I've seen especially on videos come out gray and blue. I always wonder what happened to the other colors. Anyhow, great work and Thank you 😊
You can try backing the heat down a bit, might eliminate the plum color. Then again I've never hot blued a carborized or cased part, just through hardened parts that plum out like springs and firing pins and the occasional hard barrel fitting or some such. Brownells will tell you you can back the temp off to about 260F and that should help reduce or eliminate the muddy plum tones. Also the plum can be just surface film that wipes off. As you use the solution, you'll notice this film more frequently. Again it just wipes off. Vettepicking beat me to the homemade salts formula. I used the same Ace Hardware salts formula and it works wonders. Perfectly viable. Full transparency: I quit hot salts. My tank blew out. I scraped all the salts off the bottom prior to and while heating. At boiling I was confident nothing remained on the bottom and all the material was broken up. I took a phone call, maybe 15 seconds in and heard a thump. Somehow salt either came to rest on the bottom or I missed a spot probably in a corner in spite thorough scraping. Either way the tank was vacated. Maybe 1/2 gallon remained in the tank, the rest dispersed around my bluing shed. Had I been standing there, I do not think my full face shield would have saved me. Not with 4 1/2 gallons of boiling caustic salt blasted out. You must be exceedingly mindful of this stuff. And even then there are no promises. I wasn't a rookie nor was I complacent. I call that call an act of God. That phone call may well have been my tatter winged body armored guardian angel getting me away from there. There's hazard pay for my angel, we gonna have a lot to talk about when I'm owning up at the gates.
Fantastic video. The type of knowledge you are sharing is, unfortunately, rapidly disappearing from our society. Thank you for the work you are putting into these videos. Hopefully, you will be the catalyst to inspire others to improve their gunsmith skills.
Darn! We're almost always open, but we went to the county fair yesterday. If you'll call ahead next time you're in the area, I'll try to be around the shop.
I really enjoy your videos and always learn something. Why someone would leave a negative comment is beyond me but some people are just that way. I like your channel.
...I have a number of Bob Dunlap's AGI videos and met him at a S H O T Show in Vegas in the 90s...a gunsmith friend of mine had him as an instructor in California...the man KNEW his sh*t...
Hello sir, I do bealive the way you do the bluing on this parts is the most durable. For me, being just a humble hobby gun restorer is to elaborate, and with chemichals that here in Switzerland I'm not even allowed to buy, those are reserved to profesionals only. Therefore I blue my parts with old slow rusting method, yes I have to repead several time the boiling and rusting... but I belive it give a much beatiful results... not as durable as "parkerization" (I thing this is the name of your procedure), but I like it better, it gives a realy nice blue to the parts, and is more adequate to my old damascus shotguns. I realy enjoy your videos, (apologise for my gramathical mistakes that I may do... english is not my mother language)
The caustic bluing is a much faster method. I use slow rust blue for older antique firearms because iit looks like the original bluing that was used on these firearms. I'm doing some experimenting with charcoal bluing as well.
Another awesome video Mark. The plum color has it's own appeal as well. What's the chances we will see a video on charcoal bluing in the future? Keep up the fantastic videos! Best channel on UA-cam
I'm very intrigued by charcoal bluing and have been reading all I can find on the process. My next priority is to start color case hardening, then I want to start experimenting with charcoal bluing.
Üdvözlöm! Gyönyörű munka, gratulálok! Kérem segítsen! Milyen összetevőket használt? Amatőr vagyok, és szeretnék restaurálni lég fegyvert! Nagyon köszönöm!!! George
For the small parts with pins and whatnot, you mention using a "witches brew" for your neutralizer. What exactly is that witches brew and how would one concoct it? Thanks!
I think you did a wonderful job with the rust bluing. But my only complaint is that you blued the cylinder on that Colt Walker. Which is not a big deal, as it gets done a lot, it’s just not seen as being historically correct due to how Colt never blued that one part because of the time limits to meet production demands. It is still correct in the regards that if production demands had allowed for it, then Colt would have blued them. And that’s not to say no one ever blued them later on.
It's not like this was an original Colt Walker. It was a customer's cheap reproduction. He paid for it to be finished the way he wanted. I don't make those decisions on a customer's gun. If it's something I strongly disagree with, I just don't take the work.
I bought a rusty Stevens 35 Offhand Target with a plum colored receiver. Is there any way to replicate the plum color after removing the corrosion? Would I have to hot blue it to do so?
Not sure if you do case hardening but it’s be cool if you did a video on how to do it at home with minimal equipment. Also what mixtures make the best finish like the old colts or USFA
As I mentioned, I'm not quite set up to do color case hardening yet, but I hope to be very soon. Then it's going to take a lot of trial and error to get the right colors. I'm anxious to get started and will definitely share my experiences.
It depends on the age of the firearm. The majority of firearms have been caustic blued since the 1930's. Prior to that, a variety of bluing methods were used including rust bluing which was primarily used only on barrels and magazine tubes. Caustic bluing is the method of choice today for the vast majority of blued firearms. Of course, a lot of manufacturers now use alternate finishes such as Cerakote.
Thanks 👍 I do more slow rust blue on the older firearms, but caustic bluing has its place as well. I use cold blue quite a bit, but usually only for small parts or touch-ups
Very nice. I don't have the tanks or area to do hot blueing and my cold blue doesn't turn out near as well as your hot blue. But its all I have and its on my guns. Yes, I did learn from you, thank you. I would like to know how long you left them in the bluing salts and how many times, was it just a one time dip ? 5 minutes, 1 hour ? I think at 280 degrees, the pores of the metal open up and take the blue better, is that the case ? How well do you polish before bluing? using 220, 400 or 1000 grit sand paper or carding wheel ?
About 15 minutes in the degreaser and 15 minutes in the bluing tanks. The degree of polishing is up to the customer. For these lower end guns, we bead blasted them to produce a matte finish. The finer the polish, the more time it takes and the more expensive it gets.
Love everything about this video. The technical explanation, simple "walk through ", and the "hometown" modesty. It doesn't get better than that.
Great video.
Forty years years ago I worked as an assistant in a gunsmith shop where one of my jobs was to help with the hot bluing using caustic bluing salts. Like you we used WD-40 to prevent rust after removal from the bluing tank. Our safety precautions were a little less refined years ago. We wore safety glasses and elbow length rubber gloves. We also had pretty good ventilation. We generally did hot bluing every couple of weeks, bluing perhaps a dozen or two dozen guns each time, taking several hours. After an hour or two the bluing solution began to splash a bit as we frenetically were moving barrels, receivers and small parts in and out of the bluing tank. Discolored parts were sometimes the result of too high a temperature and those parts had to be repolished. Parts we didn't know were castings, like your 37A receiver would turn purple. And the occasional aluminum part that we were unaware of was a very different kind of disaster. One of my least favorite memories of hot bluing was cleaning up afterward and realizing that the small amount of bluing solution that splashed inside out gloves would make our skin feel soapy.
Hot caustic bluing made me appreciate the much more refined and sedate rust blung that we did as an every day and on going process.
Again this was a great video. Keep up the good work.
Thanks. I, too, prefer rust bluing. I hope to have an episode on rust bluing in the near future.
Retired now but back in 82 at Colorado school of trades we did it the same way . Great video
Thanks 👍
WD-40 the first two letters mean water displacement, just because that was their 40th try, I think WD-40 should work good
You're right on the money with the name. Admittedly, it's not a good gun oil because it gums up over time, but it works well for this application. Brownell's warns not to use it to stop the rusting/bluing process, but I think they're just trying to sell their own water displacing oil. Of course, Brownell's costs almost 5 times as much as WD-40.😬
I doubt you would ever have a dissatisfied customer given the attention to detail & genuine respect you have for the trade. Thanks again for another great learning experience & happy trails.
Thanks a bunch, Marlin!
I’m so glad I found your channel. You are a wonderful man. Erudite, respectful with a wealth of knowledge and modest too 🤗 I live in Scotland and have always been fascinated with guns. Unfortunately, over here it’s not easy to feed my interest.
So I enjoy your well made videos very much.
Many hours of catching up to look forward to 😎
I think you definitely deserve an award for your presentation here! To keep up a meaningful cometary while juggling with boiling caustic salts is an art! I know the result of that boiling salt dropping on organic substances will lead to large holes appearing in whatever it touches, the big priority in bluing is the initial finishing, far too many people use the "good enough" approach, but as you prove here, with your clinical clean preparation it pays dividends, the finish you achieved here is excellent, the Colt Walker came out really well and will be a good candidate for your colour case process, but ,as you know, the cylinder of the Walker were never blued, but this one looks to have taken very well. Please do not worry about negative comments, they are made by people that have never done anything, but they heard about it from a bloke in the pub! Keep on enjoying yourself as you obviously do! Chris B.
Thanks a bunch, Chris!
...hear...hear...hear!!!
It is obvious this video represents a lot of work in making it. Thank you.
You're very welcome. Thanks for watching!
As usual Top-Notch work. Great Job
Thanks a bunch Donald!
All of your videos are top notch and I just want to go back through and save all of them as you are a trove of information! Those that would leave nasty comments are surely not as versed as you and likely are displaying their inadequacies! Great video, thanks for sharing!
Thanks a bunch, Chris!
I've been fasinated with the bluing process since I was a wee lad. Thanks for the education. I new a fella who did some really nice gun work and blueing back in the early seventies. Homer Allen was his name. I bought one of his sporterized Mauser 98s from him. Beautiful piece. He had true genius.
That receiver is so beautiful, I know that plum is somewhat undesirable but I think I would actually prefer it. I think that's just gorgeous
I agree. It would really look great if the barrel was that same color.
Ruger M77 receivers are plumb, I think it gives them a unique caricature, looks more original to those in the know
@@timsretired8675 I agree. I saw a plum blued remington 1911 with ivory grips at a gun show and I was mesmerized that I stood there for a good 20 minutes. It was so beautiful that I would've sold my car to get it. But it was just for show and not for sell, the guy told me he blued it himself and was his service pistol from Vietnam. even to this day I still dream of that gun, words can't describe how amazing it was.
Hey Mark, Jonathan Herring here, from LCC Gunsmithing. Glad to see you putting what you learned in to practice, along with lessons you've learned on your own. I love your channel. Keep up the great videos!
Thanks a bunch, Jonathan! I learned from a bluing master. 😉 Thanks for watching our channel, it's much appreciated. Tell the crew at LCC hello for me. Mark
I'm definitely looking forwards to that guest appearance!
Thoroughly enjoyed the video as always - very informative.
Me too!
Thanks so much, for another fascinating episode. I have learnt so much watching your videos. We have a cattle ranch in Australia, so I love seeing the country and history of your great spread.
Thanks so much, Graham! I enjoy hearing from other members of the cattle industry, especially from other parts of the world.
Always interesting to talk with other cattle producers, we generally run about 150 head, Angus bulls over mixed cows, mostly char bray and Angus types
Thank You very much!
This is an excellent video. I appreciate you taking the time to show us some of the caustic bluing process. Have a great weekend 🤠
Thanks a bunch. Glad you liked it!
Not that I will ever get involved with the bluing process, but I always learn something from your well done videos. Keep them coming. Especially the shooting ones.
Your choice of WD-40 was spot on for post blue. It has its place (a lot of uses) in the restoration world. Just need to be wise where you are using it. And yep...sometimes the negative comments can amaze. Glad you do what you do.
Great video. Thank you for taking the time to do it!
My pleasure!
My compliments on a very good video on the bluing process.
You did a great job on explaining the process and safety.
I realize that his is not for everyone, but to us old gun nuts this has been great.
I appreciate your candor on telling the honest cost of some products, and other possibilities.
Once again, my compliments!
Thanks a bunch, Fred!
Always enjoy your videos, helps keep me sane in these strange crazy times.
Thanks Miles. Glad to hear it.
Fantastic job, especially for a one man show!!
Thank you very much!
Greatly appreciate the professionalism and explanations of the process of this form of bluing! Thank you and God bless you for sharing 🙏😊! Honest and true to gunsmithing enthusiasts! Again thank you from a disabled veteran who loves guns and all of the fine craftsmanship associated with them! Happy Trails and good day sir!
Great video. Thank You👍👍👍
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for sharing as always I enjoyed it!
You're very welcome!
Good episode blueing isn’t easy and very toxic a tuff job without a sought .
Great job
Thanks Dante and thanks for watching!
This is one of my favorite ways to Blue small handguns and small parts on shotguns and rifles because it is super easy it is a very dangerous process because of the chemicals that you have to use but it is very easy to do I just wish I had a bigger setup I recently did a receiver on an old Stevens 100 year old shotgun and it came out Plum and I do believe it's because of the high nickel content but it looks beautiful great job man
Edit: instead of buying commercial chemicals I use potassium nitrate and lye and quick lime if I need it and it's been working great I've been using the same solution for almost a year
...so sorry to hear of Bob Dunlap's passing...
Thanks for the excellent instruction video.
Great video! Enjoyed every bit of it.
Very good .
What a wonderful presentation on bluing. This is something I want to learn. I learned my gunsmithing from a gunsmith no former schooling. He sent his fire arms to people that was set up for bluing so I never have witnessed the operation in person.
I do use Outers oils; they are hard to get ahold of but do a nice job. Very nice work on the caustic bluing. I send my work out for caustic bluing but I do rust bluing. I do not use WD-40 because it has an acidic content to it. For water displacement I also use Rem oil made by Remington Arms. I keep praying that Our Lord stops that evil war in Ukraine and that He comes soon.
Thanks for the tip, Cameron. I'm with you on the war in Ukraine.
Nice work, Instructive for sure. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent presentation. I look forward to the case color episode.
Me too! I've got the kiln set up, so I've got the hard part out of the way. I just need to get some of these guns out of the shop so I can get busy with the CCH.
Another great video Mark. Thanks for the lesson. Nice job while multitasking the video and the blueing.
Ignore any distractor's....most are are just wannabee's trying to be relevant hiding behind their screens and keyboards.
Thanks Mark! It sometimes takes a thicker skin to post these. Fortunately, the vast majority of the comments are positive on this channel.
I really enjoyed that
Thanks Jeremy. It was a bit of challenge to get that one filmed by myself. Lots of things going on simultaneously and some pretty critical timing while trying to set up camera shots at the same time. I think it turned out pretty good anyway. Thanks for watching.
Excellent video. Looking forward to the next project. Keep up the great work.
A very good video again!
What no shootin Mark? Thoroughly enjoyed this hard to film episode. Keep em coming! Look forward to smelling some gunpowder in the coming weeks. Thanks Mate!
Sorry to disappoint! I promise to shoot twice as much in the next episode.😉
Very nice deep blue! In the future if you color case harden that Walker you may want to ask your friend if he'd consider removing the bluing from the cylinder. The original Walker cylinders were left in the white. Great video and great channel. Thanks!
Of course, but he's not particularly concerned with originality in this Italian-made kit gun. As I mentioned, he wanted to protect the metal from rusting.
Thanks you for sharing the knowledge, love royal bluing colour
What can I say that hasn't already been said by everyone one else! Thank you for the show and tell. It explains quite a bit. Mark, I will only add that once you are set up for the case color hardened application that I hope you come up with the correct recipe that will give you all of the vibrant colors that these old Winchesters and Colts use to have when they came off of the production line. Most of the restored CCH I've seen especially on videos come out gray and blue. I always wonder what happened to the other colors. Anyhow, great work and Thank you 😊
Thanks Angel! Once I start color case hardening, I'll only do it if I can find the right combination to make them look like the factory originals.
Thank you 🙏🏻
You're very welcome, Paul!
Great video, I learned a lot, the process really does give you a beautiful finish. Thanks for sharing!
You're very welcome
You can try backing the heat down a bit, might eliminate the plum color. Then again I've never hot blued a carborized or cased part, just through hardened parts that plum out like springs and firing pins and the occasional hard barrel fitting or some such. Brownells will tell you you can back the temp off to about 260F and that should help reduce or eliminate the muddy plum tones.
Also the plum can be just surface film that wipes off. As you use the solution, you'll notice this film more frequently. Again it just wipes off.
Vettepicking beat me to the homemade salts formula. I used the same Ace Hardware salts formula and it works wonders. Perfectly viable.
Full transparency: I quit hot salts. My tank blew out. I scraped all the salts off the bottom prior to and while heating. At boiling I was confident nothing remained on the bottom and all the material was broken up. I took a phone call, maybe 15 seconds in and heard a thump. Somehow salt either came to rest on the bottom or I missed a spot probably in a corner in spite thorough scraping. Either way the tank was vacated. Maybe 1/2 gallon remained in the tank, the rest dispersed around my bluing shed. Had I been standing there, I do not think my full face shield would have saved me. Not with 4 1/2 gallons of boiling caustic salt blasted out.
You must be exceedingly mindful of this stuff. And even then there are no promises. I wasn't a rookie nor was I complacent. I call that call an act of God. That phone call may well have been my tatter winged body armored guardian angel getting me away from there. There's hazard pay for my angel, we gonna have a lot to talk about when I'm owning up at the gates.
Thanks for all the extra effort to make this great video possible.
You're very welcome. Glad you enjoyed it!
Beautiful plum color!👍🏽😀❤️🇺🇸
Yea, it would make a good Cerakote or anodized color.
Thanks so much,👍👍👌👌
You are most welcome
A beautiful job Sir, as always!
Thanks, Peter! I'm relieved it turned out so good on our maiden voyage.
Beautiful job!
Thanks Jeffrey!
Thanks for the info I've been curious about the process
Thanks for a wonderful video.
Fantastic video. The type of knowledge you are sharing is, unfortunately, rapidly disappearing from our society. Thank you for the work you are putting into these videos. Hopefully, you will be the catalyst to inspire others to improve their gunsmith skills.
Thanks so much for sharing....I always learn so much from your videos.
You're very welcome, Paul!
We made the trip over this holiday weekend, we stopped by to see the Cinnabar Gunworks. We were sorry to have missed you.
Darn! We're almost always open, but we went to the county fair yesterday. If you'll call ahead next time you're in the area, I'll try to be around the shop.
Thank you so much, next time we head this way we will do that.
Thanks for sharing your efforts. time and talents.
I really enjoy your videos and always learn something. Why someone would leave a negative comment is beyond me but some people are just that way. I like your channel.
Thanks Jeff! I don't get many negative comments, but I do get some real Jim Dandy's from time to time.
Great video well presented never seen the process before
Happy trails to a real nice man, until we meet again Cinnabar!!
...I have a number of Bob Dunlap's AGI videos and met him at a S H O T Show in Vegas in the 90s...a gunsmith friend of mine had him as an instructor in California...the man KNEW his sh*t...
His passing was a great loss to gunsmithing knowledge.
Thank you for this great video and love your channel! I learn a lot!
Thanks. Glad to hear you like it!
Love the video good work!
Good video. I didn’t realize the blueing process was that involved. Still trying to make it to your shop. God bless.
We'll be looking forward to your visit. Please give me a heads up when you'd like to come visit so I can make sure to be at the shop.
If I could I would pay you to let me work in your shop. You are a pleasure to watch!
I just stumbled across your channel and am giving it a sub, nicely done! I can't wait to watch some more.
More than one way to skin a cat!👍🏽😀❤️🇺🇸
Amazing Job Mark 😮😀😀😀❤️ Back in The Day With Colts Royal Blue Finish Didn’t They Boil The Parts in Gasoline Too Degrease Them Can’t Remember For Sure
Thanks Chris!
Another great video. Loved the detail you went into, and seeing the different results you got.
Thanks Richard. Glad you enjoyed it!
Hello sir, I do bealive the way you do the bluing on this parts is the most durable. For me, being just a humble hobby gun restorer is to elaborate, and with chemichals that here in Switzerland I'm not even allowed to buy, those are reserved to profesionals only.
Therefore I blue my parts with old slow rusting method, yes I have to repead several time the boiling and rusting... but I belive it give a much beatiful results... not as durable as "parkerization" (I thing this is the name of your procedure), but I like it better, it gives a realy nice blue to the parts, and is more adequate to my old damascus shotguns.
I realy enjoy your videos, (apologise for my gramathical mistakes that I may do... english is not my mother language)
The caustic bluing is a much faster method. I use slow rust blue for older antique firearms because iit looks like the original bluing that was used on these firearms. I'm doing some experimenting with charcoal bluing as well.
No wonder bluing is SO expensive ! Nice job
👍👍
I am still training to be a gunsmith and do not claim to be an expert, but I think you should plug the barrels.
Plugging barrels is a huge no-no when hot caustic bluing. It turns your barrel into an explosive device. It's an extremely dangerous thing to do.
Another awesome video Mark. The plum color has it's own appeal as well. What's the chances we will see a video on charcoal bluing in the future? Keep up the fantastic videos! Best channel on UA-cam
I'm very intrigued by charcoal bluing and have been reading all I can find on the process. My next priority is to start color case hardening, then I want to start experimenting with charcoal bluing.
Doug Turnbull is the best I’ve seen. @@thecinnabar8442
Love the work. Do y’all rebarrel and fix the timing on lever actions for when rebarreling?
Yes, I rebarrel leverguns. The tough part is finding the right barrel or getting one made. The barrel makers are way behind on orders.
What do you use for your de-greaser mix? Thanks great video!
Üdvözlöm!
Gyönyörű munka, gratulálok!
Kérem segítsen!
Milyen összetevőket használt?
Amatőr vagyok, és szeretnék restaurálni lég fegyvert!
Nagyon köszönöm!!!
George
For the small parts with pins and whatnot, you mention using a "witches brew" for your neutralizer. What exactly is that witches brew and how would one concoct it? Thanks!
Love the vids and the bluing looks fantastic! Any way I can contact you about bluing a S&W K-22 for me? Thanks Brian
Thanks Brian. Our contact info can be found on our website: CinnabarGunworks.com
I think you did a wonderful job with the rust bluing. But my only complaint is that you blued the cylinder on that Colt Walker. Which is not a big deal, as it gets done a lot, it’s just not seen as being historically correct due to how Colt never blued that one part because of the time limits to meet production demands. It is still correct in the regards that if production demands had allowed for it, then Colt would have blued them. And that’s not to say no one ever blued them later on.
It's not like this was an original Colt Walker. It was a customer's cheap reproduction. He paid for it to be finished the way he wanted. I don't make those decisions on a customer's gun. If it's something I strongly disagree with, I just don't take the work.
I bought a rusty Stevens 35 Offhand Target with a plum colored receiver. Is there any way to replicate the plum color after removing the corrosion? Would I have to hot blue it to do so?
Not sure if you do case hardening but it’s be cool if you did a video on how to do it at home with minimal equipment. Also what mixtures make the best finish like the old colts or USFA
As I mentioned, I'm not quite set up to do color case hardening yet, but I hope to be very soon. Then it's going to take a lot of trial and error to get the right colors. I'm anxious to get started and will definitely share my experiences.
@@thecinnabar8442 hadn’t gotten that far yet haha
how close is hot blueing to the "factory"blue, Id think that rust bluing would be a better reproduction of the factory finish over the hot blueing
It depends on the age of the firearm. The majority of firearms have been caustic blued since the 1930's. Prior to that, a variety of bluing methods were used including rust bluing which was primarily used only on barrels and magazine tubes. Caustic bluing is the method of choice today for the vast majority of blued firearms. Of course, a lot of manufacturers now use alternate finishes such as Cerakote.
Wish I was there. With all my projects.
Nice blueing job. Always wanted to see it done. Ihave used cold blue it is not as good as the quality u have
Thanks 👍 I do more slow rust blue on the older firearms, but caustic bluing has its place as well. I use cold blue quite a bit, but usually only for small parts or touch-ups
Great video. Do you have an update on the Chaplain serving in Ukraine? My apologies if I missed an update in the comments below. Thank you.
هل يمكن صبغ البراميل الملحومة بالقصدير
Very nice. I don't have the tanks or area to do hot blueing and my cold blue doesn't turn out near as well as your hot blue. But its all I have and its on my guns. Yes, I did learn from you, thank you. I would like to know how long you left them in the bluing salts and how many times, was it just a one time dip ? 5 minutes, 1 hour ? I think at 280 degrees, the pores of the metal open up and take the blue better, is that the case ? How well do you polish before bluing? using 220, 400 or 1000 grit sand paper or carding wheel ?
About 15 minutes in the degreaser and 15 minutes in the bluing tanks. The degree of polishing is up to the customer. For these lower end guns, we bead blasted them to produce a matte finish. The finer the polish, the more time it takes and the more expensive it gets.
So what exactly is the blueing salts , you said it was caustic. I would think it is not sodium hydroxide that would eat up iron?
💪🇺🇸👍❣️
but are you not causing chemical rusting?
Yes, that's exactly what bluing is. A controlled rusting to produce a black oxide finish.
Never never ever hot salt blue a side by side, or over and under shotgun or rifle. This will destroy the solder holdings the barrels together..
Which chemical do you use
I've used both Brownell's and DuLite's bluing salts. I'm currently using DuLite.
@@thecinnabar8442 thanks man