I need some professional help. I was given an OLD marlin model 81. I'm the 4th owner and a previous idiot stained the ENTIRE rifle. The finish on all the metal parts is long gone. I want to re blue the barrel and action. How do I go about prepping the metal for bluing. I was going I completely disassemble the rifle, I need to clean off the rust and stain that I on the metal, then buy som blueing chemicals?

I was thinking paint thinner bath and super fine steel wool to prep the metal?

Help guys!

Birchwood Casey makes a very effective blue remover, steel wool will work.

How bad is the metal? if you have pitting, you may want to think about using emery cloth and sand paper to get down to clean metal.

Depending on the depth of the pits, I will start wit 220, or 120 for really deeply pitted metal, and work up to 320, or all the way out to 600 if you want a gloss instead of matte.

The quality of your blue job will directly reflect your metal prep.

For home bluing, rust bluing is very effective and economical, you can do it in stages, as you have time. You prep the metal, rust it, boil it to convert the rust to black oxide, card it with a soft steel brush or fine steel wool, then reapply the agent and repeat until you get it as dark as you want or it stops taking on rust.

After boiling and carding, it is stable and can be set aside for a day or two if need be, then reboiled to clean it , and agent reaplied.

Here's a Link to Brownells Rust Blue, and here's a Link to the instructions

I have found this to be a very satisfying , if time consuming way to reblue old guns. It makes a much more durable finish than the cold bluing products.

There is also a way to hot blue at home using drain cleaner, I have yet to try it, but a lot of good results out there, Here's a link to one of the sites.

Post your work so we can see the results...

Wow thanks for all the info. There is verry little pitting and most of the wood stain has already worn off the metal.

How would I go about boiling a rifle barrel?

I have a stainless pan that my neighbor picked up somewhere, it's about 4" wide, 4" deep, and 36" long. I think it was a grease trap for a commercial grill or some such in it's previous life.

Brownells sell the pans if you just want to buy them, you can also find them on ebay, bluing or Parkerizing tanks.

If you are really low-buck, you can make a pvc tube for the barrel, and pour the boiling water in. It doesn't take long to convert.

I burned a ton of propane doing it outside until I finally realized I could do it on my stove top. Rust bluing is not toxic.

Here's a link to my Mauser build that details me learning to rust blue, if you scroll through you can see photos of my set up to give the idea.

What kind of results would I get from birch wood Casey super blue?  

turns the metal black but wears off easily.

Like much else in the world, there's no easy shortcut to quality, your results  will reflect your effort, or someone elses, if you pay them.

Understood. Thanks or all the help. I will take pictures through the process

nice protect.