I sold my first 1911 to a friend a few years back.  While I had the gun I bought a tube of blueing formula from my gun shop, the tube looks like toothpaste.  you apply and rub it in and then rinse with water and dry and repeat.  I blued the frame this way and it looked great for a while, but now it wears off on your hand and looks like crap.

Are there any blueing or other finish formulas that will LAST that you can do at home?  I was not impressed with this toothpaste blueing crap.  Do any home application finishes work well?  He just doesn't want to spend the money to have it professionally done as this is like an 80 year old colt and pretty beat up.

Goto www.brownells.com and do a search for teflon/moly or gunkote.  I've used the teflon/moly stuff and have had good results.  (So have a few other memebers)

Check out www.geocities.com/kemays/formula.htm for an easy home hot blue process.

What do you want to re-blue?
I use KG Gunkote all the time, it is a great product. Last damn near forever, and if it wears of(not likely)you can just apply antother a touch up that will blend perfectly with the rest of the finish.  I am currently offering a teflon coating service. Please mail me with any questions.

Thanks for the info. everyone; I went to brownells.com and the GunKote that you bake on looks like it will work great, and its fairly cheap too.

The frame and associated frame parts are the only things that need to be coated, the slide had like a grey looking finish on it, possibly parkerixing? Maybe we'll sand that too and coat it.

Ken_Mays, thanks for the info your website is very informative, though the bluing sounds like a little more work than my friend wants to do, I may try it myself on gun parts I have.  Though, isn't ammonium nitrate very hard to get now?  I thought they placed restrictions on that stuff after the oklahoma city bombing.  

Great info. everyone, thanks.  

Some have said that ammonium nitrate is hard to find, I guess it depends on where you live.  Where I live you can still buy it in 50 lb bags, from an open pallet in the middle of a parking lot.

You can substitute a similar quantity of potassium nitrate (commonly sold as stump remover) or sodium nitrate.

You could also just buy bluing salts from Brownell's or somebody, but that way is more expensive, especially with hazmat fees added.

If you can verify your parts are parkerized, DO NOT SAND OR STRIP THE FINISH!  You would be missing out on a great opportunity.  Just put the teflon on directly on top of the parkerizing.  1, it will give you a cool textured finish, 2 you will have a finish that is uber-durableF!!  "the Rolls Royce of gun finishes" according to customer service at KG products.  I just recently did a springfield mil-spec 1911-A1 for a friend of mine.  It turned out awesome, if I do say so myself.