Belgium Blue

[A.Merrill]

    A friend of mine got a bottle of this a few years ago from an old gunsmith he knew that had past on. The label says it was bottle in 1950 and distributed by Herders. Its a dark brown glass bottle with a skull an cross bones on the front, but what struck me odd was it has a plastic cap on it. It says to follow the instructions that comes with it, but they are long gone.
    Have any of you used this? Is this stuff still good? What are the instructions or where can I find them? How durable is it?   
     Thanks    AL

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Here you go:

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=7604/product/BELGIAN_BLUE or else it is a type of cattle....or beer.....

[keweenaw]

It's a  rust blue, use like any other rust blue. (clean, rust, boil, card, repeat 7 or 8 times)  Should give a beautiful finish if it's done correctly that is as durable as any bluing one can do.   You would need to do some experimentation to see how long to let it rust which will depend on the agent, temperature and humidity.  It would have mercuric chloride it in which would necessitate the poison label although it would poison you anyway even if it didn't have the mercury in it.  It won't go bad even if it is 50+ years old.  

Tom

[T*O*F]

If there are any crystals in the bottom of the jar which have separated out, put the bottle with the cap loosely fitted in boiling water.  This will heat the solution up without any fumes.  Once it's hot, tighten the cap and shake it up to re-dissolve the crystals.

[Glenn]

If there are any crystals in the bottom of the jar which have separated out, put the bottle with the cap loosely fitted in boiling water.  This will heat the solution up without any fumes.  Once it's hot, tighten the cap and shake it up to re-dissolve the crystals.

Great idea.  Never thought about that.  Thanks for the procedure.

[Dphariss]

It's a  rust blue, use like any other rust blue. (clean, rust, boil, card, repeat 7 or 8 times)  Should give a beautiful finish if it's done correctly that is as durable as any bluing one can do.   You would need to do some experimentation to see how long to let it rust which will depend on the agent, temperature and humidity.  It would have mercuric chloride it in which would necessitate the poison label although it would poison you anyway even if it didn't have the mercury in it.  It won't go bad even if it is 50+ years old.  

Tom

Brownell's now sells it.
Its a different, faster process than rust blue and can be done in relatively short time maybe an hour or two. Never actually used the stuff. But it sounds interesting.
See
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=7604/Product/BELGIAN_BLUE
for short form instructions.

Dan

OOPs Dr Tim already posted the link.

[A.Merrill]

    Brownell's, I knew I had seen the name somewhere. Sounds like some good stuff, easy to use, good results. Going to talk
 him out of some of it    Thanks for the info guys    AL

[kutter]

I used the original stuff from Herters, and I have used the new/old from Brownells.

Yes the original works great. Most all the older 'quick rust' solutions work good because of the mercury compound in them. As noted,,that's why the poison lable is on it.

I stopped using the original back when Herters was still in business as I was concerned with the amount of mercury contamination I was spreading about. I did alot of rust blue,,most all of it 'quick rust'.

When Brownells came out with the new/old Herters Belgian Blue, I thought (because of the times) it possibly was reformulated w/o the merc much like the BirchWood Casey quick brown had been. I gave it a try.

From what I can see, it still has mercury compound in it. A swipe of the soln onto a piece of warm polished brass or copper leaves the mercury plated firmly to the surface. (A problem you have to watch out for if you do use it or any with merc if you rust blue over any brass, copper, silver, gold, etc inlays. It does not come off easily,,not even with the carding).
It has the smell of the old stuff too when applied to metal that's too hot. A very definite smell.

So I gave up on Brownells Belgian Blue too. I have enough problems holding things steady w/o adding merc to the system and my surroundings. Maybe I have a bit too much already.
It is in the carding dust, it doesn't go away. So will be on the floor of your shop, your clothes, shoes, tools, bench, lungs etc. It gets tracked all over.

For quick rust blue (hot rust blue) I've used Mark Lee for the past 20 yrs or so with complete satisfaction.
I do alot of small parts with quick rust of late and slow rust the bbls.
He also makes a quick rust blowning soln but I've never used it.
It's available from Brownells too

For slow rust blue & brown I use Laurel Mtn and have done so for at least as long.

Just my thoughts on mercury compound blueing solutions.