Finishing Metal parts

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Hello everyone,

I have not made a gun yet but have been studying on it for a while now getting ready for the end of Grad-school when I can hopefully give it a try.  I have been looking at some originals and some contemporary makers.  Some of the guns I have seen have a neat finish to the metal, in fact a pistol I won has it.  It is not browned, and is not in the white, but is a pewter color.  How is this achieved? 

Coryjoe

[Ed Wenger]

Hi Coryjoe...  You might want to check the archives on this, there's a lot of good info...  Having said that, and you'll get various methods from different folks, but I like to cold blue the metal, then rub back with fine steel wool and naval (sp?) jelly.

                Ed

[t.caster]

Are you refering to something like this?
It is done similar to what VAriflegun just mentioned, but I used bleach instead of naval jelly.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Yes that image is exactly what I am talking about.  You just used bleach? I have no idea what naval jelly is.  Thanks for the info guys.

Coryjoe

[t.caster]

CoryJoe, I and others wrote extensively on this subject a while back. I hope you can find it under Bluing or Bleach/Bluing or Etching ?, in the archives.

If not done right you can ruin your parts. Or you can spend hours and hours and achieve no results at all. Care must be taken to protect (grease) metal surfaces you don't want to be etched, like the barrel bore or the inside of the lock and threads, DUH.
No DANGEROUS boiling of bleach was involved. I have tried that and all it achieved was a HEAVY RUST that had to be removed! Not what I wanted.
Good luck!

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Thanks

Coryjoe