Rust Blueing

[George F.]

One of my "in the near future projects" will be an iron mounted rifle with rust blued furniture. I was wondering if you could get good results from using a tea kettle full of hot steamy water by pouring it over the barrel and other parts? And another idea is using one of those steam generators advertised on TV for cleaning your house? Just a thought instead of locating a tank, gas burners and a new propane tank, and a place to do it ( I live in an apartment).   ...Geo.

[Leprechaun]

Everything but the barrel can be boiled in a pot on the stove. For the barrel, I have a SS tank 6"X6"X48" that I put on a 2 burner propane camp stove. The stove won't get the water to a boil but does get it hot enough to convert the rust from red to black oxide. That being said, you may be able to get hot enough water by just cranking up your hot water tank to it's max and pouring that into a length pvc pipe long enough to hold the barrel, capped at one end. OR, you could boil 4 large pots of water on the stove and pour that into the pipe. A small 1 1/4 pipe wouldn't hold much water.

[Dave B]

You can use a camp stove. My first time out for rust bluing I used our propane coleman two burner stove. It uses the cartrige cylinders. I then bought a harbor freight two burner gas burner set up to hook up to my barbeque propane tank it worked even better. I think the burnner set up cost me $40 bucks. I went to home depot and bought a section of rain  gutter (galvanized) and soldered up the end caps. I tried the tea pot pour it over the barrel procedure and got very poor results and scalded fingers. For me it takes a couple of minutes under that boiling hot water to get the best results.

[Rogue River]

Get a length of PVC 3" pipe, cap both ends and cut an opening the length of the pipe about 2 inches wide. Lay your barrel in the pipe on the bottom flat. Heat a big pan of DISTILLED (not tap) water on the stove until you get a rolling boil and then fill PVC pipe to the top and leave set until water is cool. One time should be enough. I remove barrel when cool and dry with propane torch, run a cleaning rod w/alcohol in the bore and then oil.
  I then take a dowel and clamp it in the vise in a vertical position and slip the bore over the dowel so that the bore is down. Warm the barrel w/propane torch and then drench barrel w/oil and let set a couple days. (WD-40, motor oil, gun oil, ect.
  After a couple of days clean up barrel like you normanly would and you should be good to go!

[Dennis Glazener]

I have been thinking of rust bluing a 44" .54 caliber. The above procedures seem pretty straight forward but how about the application of the rust blue? Do you make only one application or several?
Dennis
 

[Pete Allan]

I have done a fair amount of rust bluing and always did 6 to 8 coats over about a weeks time and to say the least the guns turned out beautiful.
I will second the caution of using ONLY distilled water. One time I tried tap water and got some sort of reaction to something in the water and had to refile the part not just sand it. I would say some of the pits were as deep as .015" 

[timM]

A basic procedure I have successfully used to Rust Blue.

Polish, degrease the parts then boil in clear water let cool and then apply solution.  Depending on humidity and how fast the rust grows I believe determines how close the intervals should be.  I do one every 24 hours (Calif. low humidity).  High humidly areas may etch faster and more aggressively?  So maybe under circumstances like that closer intervals?  I find that to achieve color like a double shotgun takes me about 5  procedures.  A lighter watery blue seems to come about at about the 2nd of 3rd  cycle.

A cycle being application of solution and time (rusting) interval, then boiling in distilled water.  I give the parts 15 minutes in boiling or near boiling water. allowing to cool then carding off the rust (clean un-oiled steel wool and clean no oil wire brushes).   At this point reapply solution for another interval.    I like Brownells  “American Rust Blue”  this product has given me excellent predictable results.

I find that this finish will easily cover 360 sanding scratches so maybe no need to polish beyond that point?  It would seem that the first application of solution and the items cleanliness being critical.  You will know (visually) if the first application of solution gets a “bite” everywhere not long after swabbing the solution on.  Use clean cotton balls to apply the solution.  Respectfully tim

[Rogue River]

Sorry on the previous post I assumed the parts were already Rust brown and ready to blue. I use that LMF Browning solution and apply 6 to 8 coats and card between coats until I get the brown I like. I only polish to 220 grit, if you polish too smooth the browning doesn't adhere to good to the metal. Prep your small parts the same, those you can boil on stove in a old pot in DISTILLED water. LMF instructions say you don't have to degrease but I degrease anyway and wear rubber gloves when I handle the parts.
   Also when browning and the humidity is low I take a humidifier and place near the barrel (drug store variety). Small parts I hang in a glass 1 gallon pickle bottle with a little water in the bottom and place in a sunny window. Punch holes in the lid and hang the parts from small wires above the water (small humidity chamber). WATCH CAREFULLY because it works fast!
   Now you can continue with my first post!

[gibster]

I'm no expert by any means and have rust blued only one barrel.  I first browned the barrel (along with the other parts needing blued) and used a length of PVC pipe (3-inch) capped on one end.  I used a length of wire through the tang screw hole and used it to lower the barrel into the capped pipe and secured it so the end of the barrel didn't touch the bottom of the pipe.  I don't know if it would have made a difference or not on the finish on the end of the barrel.  I also secured the pipe to the railing of my deck so I didn't have to try to hold it upright when pouring the boiling water into the end.  I used a three gallon pot to heat the water to a boil on the kitchen stove and went outside and poured it into the pipe with the barrel inside of it.  I stood on a small stool so that any splatter from hot water hitting the deck wouldn't end up on me.  Something about pain that I really don't like very well .  One pot of water was plenty.  I then just let it sit until the water cooled and I could safely remove the barrel.  It seemed to work pretty good and was an inexpensive way to "boil" the barrel.  The rest of the parts I just put into boiling water on the kitchen stove.  Once done, I worked the parts with oil to the sheen that I was looking for and let it go at that.  It seems to be holding up pretty good and I like the finished look on the rifle.  I plan on using this method again once I figure out what my next build will be.
Gibster

[George F.]

An aluminum gutter will work for boiling the barrel? To me that makes no sense, Don't  they recommend using distilled water or rain water for boiling?  Why would you use another metal in a boiling atmosphere or medium, wouldn't that give you a problem? I have read that a light gauge steel/iron tank is recommended, but Brownells doesn't/didn't carry one that long. I believe a 48" tank is what we need. I guess a large camp stove would work, or one of those double propane burners for kettle cooking, then again a fire in a fire pit is also available.  ...Geo.

[Dave B]

George,
You use an aluminum gutter when your using Hershel House's boiling with chlorox and water solution to age the parts trick.  I use a steel galvanized gutter only for rust bluing. You can make the gutter how ever long your barrel is.  I figured on using both my two burner camp stove and my two burner propane canning rig for any real long barrels 40" or longer. My tank is only 38" but I have a section of un used gutter that is 48" or slightly longer just waiting to be assembled.

[rick landes]

I have been thinking of rust bluing a 44" .54 caliber. The above procedures seem pretty straight forward but how about the application of the rust blue? Do you make only one application or several?
Dennis
 

I have tried Pinkerton's and Mark Lee's rust blue's. IMHO the Pinkerton's is a more difficult product to work with, however it gives a satin like finish. The Mark Lee's is as easy as it comes, much easier than LMF (I believe as I have only browned barrels and the like with it). The mark's is clean the barrel, rub the solution on, almost instant rust, boil, wipe off with degreased 0000 steel wool and repeat about 5-6 times. Then put the parts in a baking soda (about 1# to 1 gallon) wash for about 15-20 minutes. Remove warm the parts (I use a heat gun) and apply oil.
Some say leaving the parts dry overnight and then oiling makes a stronger blue. I do not know, but I have been know to do that too.

[George F.]

Hi ya Dave, I was thinking that Since you run the risks of getting a splotchy job with tap water, that it must be the chemicals in the water. I have to admit that I truly hate to read. I was never very good at it, something in my head just doesn't process the written word. I re-read your response, and did see that you recommended a galvanized gutter and not an aluminum gutter. Not trying to step on any toes, just trying to understand.So a galv. gutter works, how did you close the ends up? What kind of solder did you use and flux. It being zinc, I am ignorant as to the possibility of soldering the galv. gutter.  I'll go there today, and see if they have any. I'm guessing it's the 1/2 round variety. Thanks for the tips.  ...Geo.

[P.W.Berkuta]

I have rust blued using Mark Lee's Express Blue and like it a lot, it is simple to use and I use tap water which around here is full of minerials - it still does a very good job. Like I said before - it is simple to use. I sand to about 320 - 400, clean, degrease, apply the stuff with a swab, let stand for 5 to 7 min, place in boiling tap water for 5 to 7 min, remove, swab more stuff on, return to boiling water for 5 - 7 min, remove, swab some more on - change water and bring to boil, return parts to boiling water, repeat the above cycle for 3 to 4 more times, empty water from pan, add fresh tap water with baking soda, place parts in pan for 5 - 7 min. remove, wash, dry, oil -- done! No carding, no fuss, all in about 2 hours - here is a tomahawk done as I described --

[Randy Hedden]

Not trying to step on any toes, just trying to understand.So a galv. gutter works, how did you close the ends up? What kind of solder did you use and flux. It being zinc, I am ignorant as to the possibility of soldering the galv. gutter. 

George,

You are assuming that you have to solder the ends onto the gutter??  The end caps for the gutters have little mating grooves that can just be filled with silicone sealant before putting the end caps onto the gutter.  Boiling water does not affect the silicone.  I put mine together with silicone sealant many years ago and have used it several times with no ill effect on the ends of the gutter.

[George F.]

Thanks for all the tips. I shouldn't have a problem with it now, Thanks.   ...Geo.

[jerrywh]

I have only seen one rust blued flintlock original. It was a Boutet double fowler. Has any body elese ever seen one?