touching up rust blue

[hortonstn]

i did a rust blue on a rifle barrel, turned out great except for a dumb mistake
the barrel had a couple tiny screw holes in the top for sights which were pluged with tiny screws. problem is i did not take the screws out, when blued aparently there was a trace of oil in those holes needless to say they stayed brown
can i touch this up without redoing the entire barrel
thanks
paul

[keweenaw]

You can try, but I've found it very difficult to blend in areas as the rust bluing agent will tend to remove blue as well and those yellow areas won't color unless cleaned back down to bare metal.   I've had areas that were yellow due to oil - mostly with oil coming out of micro cracks on old work - and finally had to resort to going back to bare metal on the whole job. 

Tom

[Acer Saccharum]

You might be able to fit small flat head screws in place, with the countersink removing most of the yellow. Very touchy work, you don't want to scratch the neighboring surface.

Brownell's may sell screws like that for sight bases, or you may have to make them.

[kutter]

If you want to keep the holes,,just remove the screws,,clean out the holes and scrub down the problem area with the same grit you originally polished the bbl with.
Taper the repair polish out a bit and recoat/boil/card w/ rust blue soln. A couple of coating will get you back to near the same color. Then start widening the application area  a touch to blend it in.
No need to repolish the whole bbl. Rust blue is very easy to touch up. Especially when you're the one that did the blue and polish to begin with and little time has passed since it was done.

If you don't want the holes,,they can be plugged with steel plugs rivited into place, filed and polished flush and the same re-blue done to them. An invisable repair can be done.

[hortonstn]

thank you for the info
i'll try
paul

[Ed Wenger]

If I'm reading correctly, couldn't you just use something like Super Blue?  If the screw holes are that small, a Q-tip (or tooth pick) should do the trick.  I wouldn't want to screw around with the bluing on the flats, blending and all that.


      Ed

[wilkie]

Aboutfour years ago I tried Brownell's dicropan im bluing with the boiling water tank.  Used tap water, didn't blue very well, was streaked and incomplete blue.  Next tried the im solution in a rust blue application, no boiling water tank.  Polish to what you want, degrease, apply im bluing, let set one or two days, card with fine steel wool, reapply bluing solution.  It takes 4 or 5 coats to get a really dark or black oxide coating.  After last coat you should apply oil.    This can be used on hot blued guns as well as it is supposed to produce the same coating.  I have had excellent results with this method and it can be applied again later if needed to blue scratches.  You could try steel wool to remove the yellow color then if that works, degrease, then apply im bluing.  It seems that after a few weeks this bluing becomes more wear resistant.

[Acer Saccharum]

This is an older piece, rust blued. Long before I discovered the ALR...maybe before the web was invented....no, no, don't start this up....

Anyway, this was Wahkon Bay, rusted, carded, boiled, rusted, carded, boiled until I thought I was going to go mad. I must say, it's a very tough finish. Worth doing on the right gun.

[wilkie]

You have done a nice job Acer.  I have used the boiling water bluing method about 50 years ago using Herters Belgium blue that back then contained bichloride of mercury.  It did a good job but herters went out of business.  Later tried dicropan im from Brownells but tap water would cause problems.  Noticed that im contained nitric acid so tried it as a rust blue process, worked just fine.  It will give results similar to your job but without the boiling water mess.  I use a tooth brush to apply a small amount of bluing and spread it around.  this forms a black oxide coating that will be more wear resistant with time.  Have blued some highly polisned pieces that have come out as shiney after 4 to 6 coats.  Once a part has been polished and degreased, it can be coated in about 5 minutes.  After 1 or 2 days it can be carded then recoated.  I use a small stainless steel brush to card the more intricut pieces instead of steel wool.  This is about the easiest and cheapest way to get a good quality blue job that I have found.     

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Wilkie, they seem mighty proud of the Dicropan IM, Have you any experience with the Dicropan T-4 in liquid or creme??

[wilkie]

No, I haven't.  After I tried IM as a rust blue and had such good results I quit looking.  Had a 4140 barrel that I had polished on the lathe several months earlier that I blued with IM.  Did it in 1/3's approximately to test streaking and coverage.  Degreased all of it, coated 1/3, 1 or 2 days later carded then coated 2/3, 1 or 2 days later carded and coated rest of it.  I recoated all of barrel 4 or 5 times then let it.  I got busy with other things and did not do anything with it for several weeks.  Carded it with steel wool and recoated it then recarded it again, but it doesn't show any streaks and is still shiney.  I've worked with hot bluing, 2 or 3 boiling water blues, and touch up blues, but this seems to produce the best and easiest blue.  I don't understand why someone else or Brownells hasn't tried IM as a rust blue process. 

[Dphariss]

i did a rust blue on a rifle barrel, turned out great except for a dumb mistake
the barrel had a couple tiny screw holes in the top for sights which were pluged with tiny screws. problem is i did not take the screws out, when blued aparently there was a trace of oil in those holes needless to say they stayed brown
can i touch this up without redoing the entire barrel
thanks
paul

Just degrease and rust the affected areas and boil out again. Continue till the color matches.


Dan