deputy125

there was some interesting discussion in a shotgun thread about some cold bluing and different products.

as for myself, i've used oxfo blu from brownells and my results sort of mirrored mac's.........it seems to take to metal purty well but it is a dull mat type blue more along the lines of dark gray. It don't shine worth a durn.

I've also used brownell's 44-40 gun blue and it seems to work well as i've blued some gun barrels with it. Seems to be more of an actual blue than ox-fo . had best results leaving the barrel in the sun on a hot day to get the metal almost too hot to handle and applying.............it takes real fast to the metal that way but getting it applied uniformally was a bit of a problem and if not careful you can "mottle" things.

finally, i've used G-96 gun blu cream and this is the stuff i've used for touch-ups. seems to work fairly well but must apply several times to get it consistant and then there is the problem of getting it to mate with the rest of the barrel/action for uniform appearance. Still, the G96 seems like good stuff. I've used it on one complete shotgun barrel before and while not as good and dark/rich as 44-40, it was a heck of a lot better than the sad shape it was in to begin with......



i generally clean a surface with gun scrubber and steel wool first then clean it again with rubbing alcohol before i start on any job.

What about the rest of ya'll? what has worked good for you........what is your technique's in cold bluing small touch-up jobs and larger whole gun jobs?

XLCH

I have used 44-40 for touch up and it worked ok, it did not match what was there and I did not try very hard to have it match, this was 10 years ago and it is still on the gun just as it was when I put it on.

Machinist

Oxpho-Blue is really more a cold Parkerizing than cold blue. It doesn't look as good but it gives better protection. I never really worked with the others enough as I found them hard to use. Oxpho-Blue is so easy. I use the cream rather than the liquid.