Need to touch up a recent purchase that has holster wear.

I tried the cold blue and to be honest, I would leave it with the holster wear.I don't think it would look anybetter if you heated it.

I would just leave it if it was my pistol. Most cold blue jobs I've seen look like the worn spot was colored with a black magic marker. Besides, I think a worn pistol is handsome.

Heat does seem to make it darker.   Be sure to get every bit of oil off with brakekleen then hit it with a hairdryer for a few minutes.

cold blue = waste of money


I want to make a product that doesn't work but people buy anyway for 50 years.

I've had pretty good luck with cold blue, it's no different than painting a car, the more preperation you do the better the results turn out.  I've got a No4 Mk1 Lee Enfield that was missing 90% of the original black finish, I stripped off the rest, prepared the metal and cold blued all of it and it looks really nice.  But trying to cold blue worn spots is like trying to touch up a ding on your car door, while it may look better than it did before, the chances of matching the color exactly and blending it perfectly are pretty slim.

In my experience heating the surface makes it work a LOT better. It gets darker and seems to hold up better. I've never gotten it to really match the original blueing but didn't expect it to. I'd throughly degrease it several times, warm it up with a hair dryer until the part was too hot to touch and then add the blueing. Give it awhile to work and buff it off and then do it again...repeating the degreasing step.

A little oil on the surface and it wasn't too bad. When I was fitting a new grip safety this was an easy way to cover up the bare metal. I didn't want to blow $75-$150 on a blueing job for a carry weapon..I'm still satisfied with it several years later.

Cold blue will never match a factory blue color.

I have had good results with it - Doing the entire weapon.

Quoted: In my experience heating the surface makes it work a LOT better. It gets darker and seems to hold up better....

Agreed.

Cold blue even Oxpho sucks.

I sporterized a Mauser and it looked wonderful. Then went hunting in a light rain. The afterward barrel had a fine light coat of rust. The blue did nothing to protect the metal. I used 0000 steel wool to remove the rust and it took the finish off.

The only way to home blue is the best way: Rust Blue.  Talks a long time to complete but the finish is better looking and more durable than any factory blue.  Plus the metal cannot rust.

My process...

Clean the parts with brake cleaner and let dry.
Put parts into boiling distilled water and boil for a couple minutes.
Remove from boiling water, shake off and dunk in a quart container of oxpho blue.
Remove, let partially dry and card lightly with degreased 0000 steel wool.
Repeat boil, dip and card as necessary.
Coat with good quality oil.

Quoted: My process... Clean the parts with brake cleaner and let dry. Put parts into boiling distilled water and boil for a couple minutes. Remove from boiling water, shake off and dunk in a quart container of oxpho blue. Remove, let partially dry and card lightly with degreased 0000 steel wool. Repeat boil, dip and card as necessary. Coat with good quality oil.

That is awfully close to the process for rust bluing.  

Coat parts with Pilkington's
Let sit for 2 hours
Boil in distilled or rain water
Let dry and card with 0000 steel wool
Repeat 5-10 times
Wipe down with baking soda and water to neutralize acid
Apply oil

Quoted: Cold blue even Oxpho sucks. I sporterized a Mauser and it looked wonderful. Then went hunting in a light rain. The afterward barrel had a fine light coat of rust. The blue did nothing to protect the metal. I used 0000 steel wool to remove the rust and it took the finish off. The only way to home blue is the best way: Rust Blue.  Talks a long time to complete but the finish is better looking and more durable than any factory blue.  Plus the metal cannot rust.

I didn't tink that cold bluing or hot salt bluing could prevent rust.  Ie a facory blue job will rust when exposed to water.

Quoted: I didn't tink that cold bluing or hot salt bluing could prevent rust.  Ie a facory blue job will rust when exposed to water.

Hot bluing is supposed to help some. But cold does not. Rust bluing will prevent rust.

The difference is in how rust bluing works.  The acid solution causes the surface to rust. Rust is red oxide. Boiling in pure water causes the red oxide to become black oxide.  After 5-10 cycles the entire surface is black oxide. Since the surface cannot oxidize (rust) because it already has fully oxidized.

This is the process they used on high end elephant guns at the end of 19th century and early 20th.  It really is good. The down size is that it will take a week or more to complete.  Plus with a rifle you need a pan long enough to hold the barrel.  You also need a good supply of water.  The instructions say to let it sit for 2 hours. But after the first 3 or 4 cycles I let it sit over night. It just doesn't produce enough red oxide in 2 hours to be worth the trouble to boil and card.

You might think that all this rusting will pit the surface of the firearm. It will. But the pits are microscopic and will not change the dimensions. If anything they will help the parts hold oil and thus aid in lubrication.

Well it came it out really well. I cannot see any of the holster wear marks.

Cleaned it.
Brakeclean
Heated it for 10 minutes at 225 degrees.
Applied blue. rinsed
Heated again.
Applied blue again
Rinsed.

Looks like new again.

I have found that cold blue works only with  really good steel!!!  In my case it was a 1935 Rem Sportsman that had rust(particules so intensece that you couldn't even read Sportsman or see the  ducks on one side pheasant on the other)!

I used the fine (300 grit artist pastel paper)on it till it was fine shiney steel(all over) then used cold blue!    Used it a prescribed  ,liberaly appliyed then wiped clean with wet clothe!

Then dried applyed again(and so forth utill the blue could get no stronger) then used lots of gun oil!

Let dry then more oil(seams the finnish is porportunite to the ammount of oil that is absorbed) and in the end it Pattined into the old same old finnish it started out with!

You could not tell it had ever been refinished!!!

Bob

Well honestly..    I don't know anything about cold bluing, but I had to read the title to this thread five or six times before I figured it out.

Does heating a firearm before applying cold blue make it work better?

I was imagining two female deer taking a blowtorch to a gun and it just didn't register how you could train them to do that and apply cold blue.