Gun Blue gone

dodge69

I had something happen that I have never seen before. I have a set of real nice model 12's that I have owned for several years. To add a little more protection from damage of a gun ding when servicing the guns I put them all in gun socks. I was doing my regular oil and cleaning of my stored guns and one of my model 12's blue was completely gone. It looked like it had been completely stripped. Only one gun, the others were fine. I use the same oil on all my guns and the socks all came from the same company. I use a golden rod for heating the safe and have temperature and humidity gauges in all of the safes.
Am I doing the wrong thing by putting the guns in socks?

nmyers

It sounds like everything that you are doing is right. LOTS of us store guns in gun socks without problems.

Did you get the M12's new? Could they have been "refinished" with cold blue that faded with time?

Neal

dodge69

I did not buy the guns new. They all have original blue and I have owned them for over 30 years. I had no idea this had happen since my last cleaning, basically oil the guns. A friend wanted to look at the guns and when I took this one out of the sock it was a total light gray over the entire gun. My gun smith said he had never seen this happen. His only thought was I might have mistakenly used a cleaning oil on the gun.

SP45

It seems I remember if the gun is blued with "Vans" gun blue this could happen. I remember a story years ago about this happening and there was something that would cause this but I don't remember the details. I have never used it so I don't know.

dodge69

This gun had not been cold blued it was an original gun.

rufe-snow

Over the years I have run into guns, that have changed color from their original factory blue. Was told, that this results from the original factory bluing process. If the chemicals used in the bluing have been depleted, from being used to much. Or the temperature of the bluing solution, hasn't been adjusted correctly for the chemicals being used.

The above would cause the finish color to fade, or actually change color. Also the bluing process, has to be correctly adjusted for the specific steel used in the gun.

When I was still collecting military handguns years ago. I ran across a number of them, having a weird purple color. Most like, do to the above circumstances.

charliemeyer007

Seen a lot of purple guns come out of the blueing tanks - nickel content was the assumed culprit.

Vanishing finish from a gun sock is new to me. Perhaps you could more info like brand of sock and oil and time frame involved from last seen in good condition to gone. Did you look inside the sock for any trace of the vanished finish.

I doubt you have before pic's but I like to see good after ones. I'm thinking that it was refinished at some point by someone.

yoshmyster

What does the blue look under the stock and down the barrel? Kind a wondering if the oil and the silicone reacted and the oil turned opaque.

62fuelie

I don't know if the various changes in barrel alloy that have taken place in the lifetime of the M-12 could produce such a reaction. Hangfire may be able to add to this. IIRC the Nickel-Steel barrels didn't hold blue as well as others.

dodge69

In thinking about this, this gun was one I purchased early on in my first attempt at buying guns. I Had a set of M12's with the exception of the 28. I found one, paid a good price only to find several years later it was a very good clone which put me out of the collecting business really fast for several years and that is the gun that is involved in the blue loss. So it had to be blued at some time. I kept it for about 35 years now just to remind me of what can happen. It looked as good as when I purchased it. The sock I used was a OAK and the oil is Rem oil. There is nothing that I can see inside the sock. I did notice the sock is treated so I guess it is possible the oil and what ever they use to treat the stock could have been the problem but I have other guns in the same socks and never had a problem but none of them I know of have been re-blued. I had the gun blued.

Bert H.

Winchester made the transition from Nickel Steel barrels to Proof Steel in the 1931/32 timeframe. When you see an old Winchester that is purple, it has been reblued (improperly) with the hot salt tank method. Nickel Steel barrels were originally rust blued. The vast majority of the later Proof Steel barrels were blued with the Du-lite solution. Rust blue is lighter in color, and fades to a silver/gray with use.

Have you tried cleaning the gun steel with solvent to see it stays the same color? If the bluing is truly gone, it was not original factory bluing.