Am playing around with an old Mauser I have had laying around for a while and am thinking of using Birchwood Casey's PermaBlue.  I have used Outers gun blue before, but was curious about PermaBlues appearance when done.  How does this hold up?  Does it give a very "deep" looking finish?  Any advice would be appreciated.

Pay the $5 and order a brownell`s catalog......thier oxphoblue is as good as it gets.................

Got the catalog....Ease of use?

Perma-Blue will work, but Oxphoblue is FAR superior.

Best results with Perma-Blue and Oxphoblue are obtained with the blueing solution near boiling temperatures and parts similarly warm. DO NOT BOIL the solution or breathe the vapors... Selenium is nasty stuff. Rinse parts in distilled water.

I prefer to apply the solution with a daub of soaked steel wool. (And GLOVES!)

Conventional Blueing is best for overall durability but Cold Blue, properly applied, is nearly as good. There are some other damn good uses for Cold Blue...like refinishing Iron-Plated Winchester lever action receivers.








 

I’ve never had good luck trying to blue an entire gun with any of the typical cold blues, to include PermaBlue and OxphoBlue. They’re just not that durable.  To my mind they’re good only for touch-up.

However, I have used Herter’s Belgium Blue with great success.  However, it’s a lot (and I mean a LOT) of work applying it.  Brownells sells it.