This is a repost of a tutorial I did a few years ago on how to hot blue a gun at home using stuff from walmart.  I was asked by a couple people to repost it since the old one is archived and the pics are gone.  This is word for word from the old one, pics might not be in the exact same order but it should suffice.    Feel free to ask any questions.


First thing first, this is some nasty stuff. It is dangerous, the fumes are dangerous, the chemicals are dangerous, they react violently and will mess you up if they get on you. You also have to pretend you are Canadian for a while and boil your gun which kinda sucks, if you are Canadian, my condolences. Make sure you have proper safety gear, I recommend long plants and shirt, gloves, respirator and face mask and boots. This is some nasty stuff. I wore shorts, flip flops, tshirt and wore gloves for about 5 minutes and then said fuck it. I don't reccomend you do that, I have literally dozens of minutes practice at this stuff so I am kind of a pro.

Materials you will need:




propane camp stove with two burners
a nice big steel pot
Drain Out Crystals (from walmart) not draino brand it wont work.
distilled water
two smaller steel pans big enough for your parts to fit in
steel wire
safety gear
oil of some kind, I used transmission fluid this time around
degreaser
bucket of regular water
candy thermometer thats reads to at least 320
peacock for safety (if you don't have a peacock a guinea will be an ok substitute)

First thing you need to do is dissasemble and prep the gun. The more prep you do the better the end product will be. I start with 320grit and work my way up to 800grit except for the slide, I do the sides of that up to 1200 grit. After you get it all sanded and old finish removed reassemble it and make sure it all works still. Now take it apart. I didn't take pictures of this part because I am guessing yall know how to take apart your gun.

Take some steel wire and hook all the parts that are going to get blued to the wire, one at a time. Once they are all wired up, set them aside.




Get you propane burner set up and put one of the small pans on a burner and get some water boiling in it.



While that is heating up, spray your parts with degreaser and let it do its magic while you set them aside.



Take your big pot and put 2 cups of distilled water for each Drain Out crystals container you are going to use. For a 1911, 4 containers of drain out and 8 cups of distilled water is perfect. Add the water to the pot first and then VERY VERY slowly add the drain out. Add a splash of it, let it react, and repeat. This will take a while to add all of it. If you rush this, you will have a frothy boil over of some seriously nasty shit at best or an explosion of this stuff erupting out in all directions. Take your time with this. After it is all added, let the reaction stabilize and get back to your parts.








Take the parts and rinse them in the bucket of water. After they are rinsed set them into the water that you have boiling and leave them alone.






Now very carefully take you pot of liquid death and set it on the other burner. And start bringing it up to 300 degrees.




Once it gets there, add your parts slowly to it. As it boils you will see the temp lower and the liquid drop, add some more distilled water to it, SLOWLY. Every time you add water it will react, so be careful.





Let the parts sit in it for around 20 minutes and then start to occasionally check on them. They should be good to go in about half an hour but if you want it darker, leave it a bit longer. Also some parts blue at different rates than others, so check on them.





Once you are satisfied, pull the part out and put it into the container of boiling water, this helps kill the salts and stops the blue. Let them go for about 15 minutes or so in there.
I forgot to take pictures of this part  


From the container, put the parts in a  container that you have filled with oil of some kind. This step is to let the blue cure a bit and to displace all the water. Leave it in there for a day and then pull it out, clean it all up and put the gun back together.



And this is what the finished product looks like.   Rock Island GI that used to have the huge silver roll mark.  A few parts were upgraded along the way.



Overall it is a simple procedure and the results are great, you just need to be careful with it. Any questions feel free to ask.


DO NOT USE ALUMINUM ANYTHING FOR THIS, IT REACTS VIOLENTLY     DO NOT PLUG THE BARREL, IT WILL PRESSURIZE AND POP THE PLUGS SPRAYING LIQUID DEATH EVERYWHERE

I would like to emphasize that this is very dangerous, you really should use proper safety gear.  I was a dumb ass when I used to do this, now I make sure I gear up whenever I blue a gun.

Looks good. Nice writeup.

Cool write up. The pistol turned out rather nice.

I'm 99% sure that you just showed us all how to cook meth

in before saigamanTX...

Yet, you're wearing flip-flops.

Excellent! Thanks for reposting.

The relevant bit you're talking about is between the bits you bolded, to wit: "I was a dumb ass when I used to do this, now I make sure I gear up"
Sounds to me like "[but] now I gear up" is what he was going for there.
A bit of "I was dumb for doing this without PPE in these pictures. I've changed that, and I recommend you use PPE too"

Those are safety flops. Duh.

OP mentioned these pics were older. He's safe now.

Yup, I was wearing flip flops, a t shirt, shorts, some thin ass gloves I ditched shortly after I started, no mask, no googles.  I mentioned that in the post, a bit down from where it said it was a repost from years ago.  Same post that is titled repost right at the top.  The very next post, the one you quoted, said I used to be a dumb ass when I did this in the past (when the pictures were taken years ago when this was originally posted) and that I no longer wish to lose my sight, my skin, have chemical burns to my lungs, etc.. so now I wear full safety gear when I blue guns.  I would also prefer others not be as careless as I was (back in the past), so I made sure to mention it in the post and in a separate post (the one you quoted).

If you would like I can contact Striker and see about setting up a fundraiser so we can hire someone to teach you to read.  Just let me know, I am in for 10 bucks.

That's neat OP, thanks.

Cool. I have just the project for this write up.

Those pictures are fowl.

Tag...

Cool write up.  Thanks OP.

You left out an important step, six pack or twelve?

Cool post, thanks for sharing.  I'm guessing bluing a rifle would be similar but you need a box of some kind?

I sort of want to try this, but I also sort of think OP be trollin.

Are the marks from the wire visible ?
Are there any ?

The wire needs to be on the parts fairly loose, for smaller parts just use the wire around them like a mini cage.  As long as the liquid death makes contact with the metal they come out mark free.    When they are in the liquid they are moving around quit a bit so they get contact all over.

Cool.

What happens if you don't strip the old blueing off first ?

I have used a gas bbq grill and a long gutter looking piece of steel to hold the  liquid.   The rifle barrel sits in it nicely, just need to make sure you can hang the parts from the sides so they are not just resting on the bottom.

If it was blued then it will just get a bit darker as long as it is clean and oil free. If it was parkarized, painted, or anything else you will just end up with a finish that is horrible.  The hot blue process is just a way to caustically rust the metal in a fast way.  If it cant get to bare metal it wont blue it but the chemicals will destroy the parkarizing. paint, etc.

Do you plug the barrel when you blue them?   If so what do you use?

Interdasting!  Thanks for re-posting, I missed it the first time around.

Not trolling, the process to hot blue guns is well documented in books, online, gunsmith schools, and more.  I just did a quick tutorial on how to do the process with using stuff you can get from Walmart for dirt cheap since most of the instructions online use things a bit more difficult or expensive to acquire.

Great thread.

Drain out is lye, right?

Have you tried stainless steel parts?

Do not plug the barrel, at 300 degrees the plugs will pop out and hot caustic salts will go flying.

Never tried it but I doubt it would work, the blue is caused by the caustic salts reacting and "rusting" the metal.

Sodium Hydroxide, NaOH

Yes sir, lye

hooked on phonics maybe? I think we can make this work.

How about a similar setup for home Parkerizing? I did something like that once, using (I believe) phosphoric acid and steel wool, but it's been so long ago that I've forgotten the details. It was a 1911 and it turned out OK. I remember I had to use a ceramic container (which ended up cracking over the gas stove).

Great thread.  Thanks for sharing.

I feel like this topic is going to get moved. I like it though. I did some cold bluing the other day and wondered how easy it was to hot blue.

Why would it get moved?

How do you dispose of this highly corrosive compound when you're done with it?

Thanks for posting this!

I save it for future use most of the time. It can also be neutralized with vinegar.  It can be dropped off to chemical recycling centers.  Some places have companies you can pay to pick up chemicals.    There are lots of options.  

You can also probably use it to clean your drains, being that it is drain cleaner with water added.  

I love stuff like this!  Thanks OP!!

Oil goes down the storm drain or in a hole in the yard, just like if you were doing an oil change.

Very cool write up OP

I'm guessing this would work with carbon steel knives the same way?

What is the peacock for?  Why is it more safe than a guinea?

I would pour it down the drain.

Oh just because it's so well written and technical. Seems above the level of GD.

It would work but not sure how it would hold up to wear.

Dude, those are OSHA approved jellies.

Nice tutorial OP