Why won't the blue take???

GunHawke

From the grits capital south of the Mason Dixon,[8D]

I went back and read other "Expert" forums on bluing but I still need help. A friend of mine and I like to have a project gun once in a while and my latest is a Marlin lever rifle in 45/70. I took on the stock work and my friend went the bluing route but he says the NO bluing options will worked and he has at least three methods at his disposal. I know that getting the metal prepared is as important as the bluing itself. So if the bluing won't take, what can we/he try next??

Thanks,

Jim Michaels
GunHawke

Bill Costik

Not trying to be a smartazz, but it was originally a blued gun, and not their stainless version right?

If it was blued, I would be looking at what he is using. Seems unlikely all three would fail him, but anything is possible.

GunHawke

It was a blued rifle to start...and I said the same thing to my friend..."none of them would take??" and the answer still leaves me stuck scratching my porkchop side burns.

Jim
GunHawke

Bill Costik

Well, what are the three bluing techniques he is using? Another question, is he a gunsmith, or more of a backyard smith? I'm not trying to insult anyone, just get an idea for what is going on. If he is using immersion bluing, I would look at the age of the salts,, and the high and low tempurature of the solution.

Another thing I would look at is if this rifle could possibly have been stainless to begin with, then coated with one of the bake-on laquers. I have run across parts like this a few times before, but not very often. I'd imagine polished stainless would look a lot like polished nickel-steel (or whatever Marlin uses) to the untrained eyed.

SP45

Are you getting any color at all or is it completely white. I can't recall off the top of my head if Marlin offered "blued" stainless or not. There is a process for coloring stainless that they call "blueing".

tallcharlie

The biggest problem in bluing is oil, i.e., degreasing. This applies to nitrate bluing, cold bluing, browning, and controlled-atmosphere bluing. Even the slightest trace of contamination will stop cold processes and turn hot processes into disasters. In a controlled-atmosphere oven, petroleum vapors are catastrophic.

For a brilliant treatise on older bluing methods, try to find a copy of Firearm Blueing and Browning by R. H. Angier, Stackpole Company, 1936.

Bill Costik

Grease or oil would'nt stop the the whole bluing process, just cause spotting, spots of dicolored or white metal in the blue. We'll hopefully find out for sure when GunHawke comes back, but I think SP45 hit it on the head. I also believe they call that process blackening, where a thin layer of steel is bonded to the surface of the steel, then that is blued. Not sure of all the technical terms on that one.

GunHawke, what can you tell us about the gun? Barrel length, lever syle, etc?