bluing steel with a torch bluing steel with a torch

Then you pull it out and scrape off the oil along the blade edge. Blue Metal Shell 13 in 1 Welding Torch Nozzle Tip Cleaner For Welder Soldering. Also: Do not allow the solution to run, drip or sag. I wish this article had come out sooner, since I did not know that 0000 steel wool may have oil in it. Dont pour water in to your bath! Oil and grease really are the enemy because youre trying to (literally) corrode the metal. Before you start, it might do you well to mark the sight base on each side of the dovetail with a Sharpie marker, so you can see when the sight begins to move. Youll need some shop rolls, ranging from 180 to 400 grit (typical 4-packs are 180, 240, 320 and 400 grit, in 1, 1.5 or 2. I wish I had known more about the process, heating (I was working outside on a 60 degree day) I may have to check with my friend to see if it needs reblued again, Im sure he never shot it. Dont drop or try to bend the steel once its removed. Once the steel is clean, you can begin heating it up. "name": "Shooting Mystery", The cross section and size of parts affect the outcome of the finish and time it takes to achieve. "Bluing" is the process of oxidizing steel to create a durable, corrosion-resistant layer. Its the corrosive gift that just keeps on giving. Tenifer get's up to (1077F) last I checked and was the 5th step in Glock heat treating after that they Pakerize it. When youre using polishing paper, you think that 600 grit is very fine, and it is taking you hours to polish out something to 600. Excellent info. One of the reasons I hand-polish up to 600 and buff only above that is that when you see one of my barrels (by holding it up to a light source, and sighting down the barrel from the muzzle at your eye to the breech out at arms length), you see no dips, waves, ripples, etc. You might need two applications to clean up more deeply rusted spots. Put all the components into the tank and wait for 5 15 minutes. I can see my wife walking in and shaking her headabout as vigorously as when I asked if I could use the dishwasher to clean some tools. How do I harden a steel hammer so that is lasts longer and is more durable? Steps to Hot Blue Steel with a Torch Im asking because theres a guy on YouTube recommending Brown Express first, then several layers of Blue over that. The parts are then oiled and allowed to stand overnight. The object on the left is a custom mild steel potentiometer knob! Its nice when something can be re-used a time or two, especially when used in diversified ways. I wouldnt use this bluing method for these items. Youll want to clamp on the barrel directly under the sight youre about to drift out. Higher carbon contents will take longer to heat. Just dont do it. While the rod may heat some by conduction, it wouldn't get hot enough to start the color-forming process. Share it with us! To shrink, I assumed you heated the steel plate only, to expand the hole in it. Free shipping. Then you sight down the barrel and you see dips and waves in the barrel profile. Ive dealt with strong acids and strong bases in lab work, and I fear the strong bases more. "https://www.pinterest.com/theshootingmystery/", Wipe them down with WD-40 on a regular basis. Heat source You will require at least one burner for bluing salts and two hot water burners. Heat the Steel. The loose oxide was then carded (scrubbed) off, using a carding brush - a wire brush with soft, thin (usually about 0.002in (0.051mm) thick) wires - or wheel. Your tanks better be tight, your stands for the tanks better be rigid, youd better have top-of-the-line fire extinguishers (NB the plural) available to you. I dont have that much blueing to do in my shop, so I dont use hot salts. -Something to hold your piece with, make sure it's appropriate to hold it with so it doesn't get too hot in your hands. 84 or Du-Lite 3-0. How to colour steel with heat (hot oil finish) is a simple but effective way of achieving a desired colour of choice.The colours are fantastic and often come out in a beautiful two-tone shine. If everything appears good, then you can transfer the components into a hot water tank. - Ballachy", "Bluing of Steel by Heat Treatment: Why and How it Happens? 2 years ago, For the record The gentleman said multiple times that the plastic container shown in the pictures was just for the instructional photos and to be sure that the container is made of metal for this process, (Homer Simpson smacking his forehead: "DOH! Very helpful! I just had my first experience rust browning a barrel. He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns. Why do you bother with all this crap?. tighter your arc, the less the heat input will be. A couple bottles of aged bourbon minimum. Thats how vigorously we de-grease guns before starting blueing. wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. The cabinet is then sealed. Historically, razor blades were often blued steel. Craig, torch bluing is a real thing that has been use a lot in the custom gun world, mostly for screw heads but even for complete muzzle loader creations ( the vendor will be quite proud of his work it seems as cost increases considerably to a finished item). "height": "800", Once you see it turn golden, the process has started and colours will change fairly quickly! Brownells has steel tanks, and there are some steel/stainless long/thin tanks available from other sources. RF: Expect a write-up from me on Rust blueing and parkerizing in the next couple of weeks. For the process your metal should be nicely polished for the best results.The more shinier the polish the more your end result will glow. Then remove it from the degreaser, don't be tempted to wipe it off with anything. If I remember right they then heated them up a bit and applied fish oil orignal and I think latter switching to linseed oil to protect the finish and give it that wet look. Pull it out of the tank and place on a drain rack. Sign up for wikiHow's weekly email newsletter. Modern home hobbyist versions of this process typically use a hydrogen peroxide and salt solution, sometimes with vinegar, for the rusting step to avoid the need for more dangerous acids.[7]. At the end of this heating process the crucible is removed from the oven and positioned over a bath of water with air forced through a perforated coil in the bottom of the bath. This is as deadly as the lye-based hot salts, but more for the temperature of a large batch of salts. Your container should be relatively larger than your object. ", https://mgs.edu/making-chisels-skips-newsletter/, http://www.technologystudent.com/equip1/heat1.htm. This will remove all the traces of the bluing solution and other chemicals. Again, dont mess around with these chemicals and only handle them with extreme attention. Alternitavely you can leave it in the oil bath to stabilize. "headline": "How to Blue Stainless Steel in 5 Easy Steps: Complete Guide", Commercial products are widely sold in small bottles for cold bluing firearms, and these products are primarily used by individual gun owners for implementing small touch-ups to a gun's finish, to prevent a small scratch from becoming a major source of rust on a gun over time. Ill be saving this for the future. This process was repeated until the desired depth of color was achieved or the metal simply did not color further. Remember the oil is probably gonna release some smoke/fumes once the piece is quenched so as said before: please do this step in a well ventilated area. Put 600 grit compound on a wheel, use a little too much pressure and youll be gob-smacked at how fast it can cut material off the gun. Metal parts that look black or blue-black are usually blued (rather than painted). Did you make this project? Thank you so much for sharing such a great article. If the magnet doesnt stick, its ready to be pulled away from the heat. And thats about everything you need to know about stainless steel bluing. High temperatures and dangerous chemicals mean that a moment of carelessness can make you pay a heavy price. You MUST plug your barrels, gas cylinders, remove your pistons, etc. One can generally use the same solution to brown as to blue. Fortunately, this is easily had at any hardware store: WD-40 is a water displacing product, not a lubricant (contrary to widespread advertising). Picture Information. Quenching the steel rapidly cools it so the alloys inside harden together. Mark the sharpened edge with a crayon. Some people might not have a tank long enough to contain a barreled action to boil out. They melt at, oh, somewhere about 280F. { Probably the main one is the content of so-called "carbon, "I was looking at making a set of plate armor and I wanted to see how to harden the breastplate. 2 years ago Approved. Black oxide provides minimal protection against corrosion, unless also treated with a water-displacing oil to reduce wetting and galvanic action. It does provide good rust resistance, which is improved with oil. So you will get a shinier finish. It, too, must be oiled to provide any significant rust resistance. When the liquid stops bubbling, remove the metal from the container and wipe off any excess liquid. It is named after the blue-black appearance of the resulting protective finish. I didnt drop outta my mommas womb being able to do this stuff. I now want to reverse the process so I can drill and tap the metal tip. Because so many people are trying to do this sort of thing on the cheap, thats when I start thundering in my warnings about safety. Step 3: Suspend the components in the bluing solution tank, However, if the bluing effect isnt satisfactory, then you can try giving the components an acid bath (using, Step 4: Rinse the components in a cold water tank then transfer them to a hot one, Step 5: Submerge the components in a tank filled with water displacing oil, Address: 4455 Camp Bowie Blvd, Ste 114 #852, Fort Worth, TX 76107. Bluing is also used for providing coloring for steel parts of fine clocks and other fine metalwork. In literally 10 seconds on a buffing wheel incorrectly applied, I could screw that up to a point where it might take be eight+ hours of hand polishing to recover my prior results. Heat the gun parts. Old school smiths use something called washing soda to strip oil off guns. Its durable and wears well. Try it on some unimportant pieces first. Great column, and thanks for all the responses to various questions and comments. [4], Bluing can also be done in a furnace, for example for a sword or other item traditionally made by a blacksmith or specialist such as a weapon-smith. Although the steel parts, such as anOrdains watch hands, are near enough miniscule, each Once you strip the blue & rust, then you can see what youre dealing with. 2. I plan on doing this on a couple of older beaters first. Mix equal parts of cream and liquid Brownells Oxpho Blue. Holy crap, did that reaction hurt like hell. For the color change to be uniform you have to remove the grease, oil, paint etc or it looks blotchy. In the nitre bluing process, polished and cleaned steel parts are immersed in a bath of molten saltstypically potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate (sometimes with 9.4 grams (0.33oz) of manganese dioxide per pound of total nitrate). If you are new to the subject and are in need of detailed instructions, then youve come to the right place. This finish allows them to be stored in high-moisture conditions, like sports bags, without rusting. As mentioned, cold bluing can be done at room temperature with decent results. The melting point for KNO3 is 633F. You turn up your nose at crap guns? I like 1.5 wide shop cloth myself). There wasnt a whole lot of pain just yet until my buddy took the safety bottle of vinegar solution used to neutralize the alkaline NaOH salts, and then the pain was there. Accidental exposure to the chemicals could result in serious injuries. I guess Ill have to just be happy drying toilet paper. Wear disposable nitrile gloves, work in adequate ventilation, bag and dispose of all rags/towels used in the process in their own bags, and quickly. In the automotive world this is a common practice. You risk a big fire that is self sustaining by the reaction itself. By the time I was done it looked like it was a beat up 5 year old gun rather than a 1930s bolt .22 that came from a scrap yard. My apologies for the background noise in the first half of the video We had compressors running where I The tank of distilled water you heat with a camp stove, the kitchen stove (Im not responsible for marital discord and disruptions of conjugal relations) or some other much larger heat source to a boil. Glad that there are folks like you around. Even a fingerprint will affect the consistency of the colour. Cold bluing is not particularly resistant to holster wear, nor does it provide a large degree of rust resistance. Spilling salts at this temperature will instantly result in fire, because the KNO3 is a powerful oxidizer all on its own, and the added thermal energy will light anything on fire all alone. *700F is very close to the heat treatment temperature of some steels. The reason I ask is that when you heat steel that is in the white to 600F, you get a brilliant blue all on its own. Its oiled in production to keep it from rusting on store shelves. What did you use for polishing your pieces and Im guessing you polished then added the chemicals after?Thanks, Joe, Question The process was to coat the gun parts in an acid solution, let the parts rust uniformly, then immerse the parts in boiling water to convert the red oxide Fe2O3 to black oxide Fe3O4, which forms a more protective, stable coating than the red oxide; the boiling water also removes any remaining residue from the applied acid solution (often nitric acid and hydrochloric acid diluted in water). Heat the area with a torch until it stops sweating. 4.3 out of 5 stars 242 ratings-30% $12.99 $ 12. You can experiment ultimately what oils to use. 2mm wire has a circumference of ~0.25in. It is usually sold in a 1lb bottle for $3, you'll need 3 or 4 pounds probably. Stand on end over some paper towels to drain. The name of the process actually comes from the blue-black appearance of the black iron oxide. If you need to use a blow torch, focus the flame tip on the area you want hardened. When you add water to a hot salt tank, you get an explosion of steam, and you need to develop some skill in adding the water with a very fine copper pipe on your water hose to prevent steam blow-outs spattering salts all over you. You work on nice guns! it washes off with water. on Step 1. Be careful since considerable heat might be generated in the process. The difference is immersion in boiling water for bluing. You can use a heat gun, a blow dryer, or a torch for this. Any more advice is welcome SteelJunkee Joined May 6, 2018 Messages 891 If you tempered the steel with a blow torch, set the metal on an anvil or another large steel surface to conduct the heat. Itll evaporate rather rapidly, but still, dont whip it at cars or house finishes. Keep a grade B fire extinguisher nearby in case of a fire. Wait for a day to let the bluing properly cure before you do anything else to it. Acetone is also useful for de-greasing the barreled action. Dont scrub the solution onto the gun, just run a patch that is not dripping wet down one complete run on the barrel/action in one smooth stroke. 1. You will need:-2x containers (one of them preferably being metal for the oil)-oil -unleaded petrol/Acetone/Terpentine/Rubbing alcohol or any goo Heat the gun parts. "I am nearly 16 and can not wait until I have my drivers license. When the first patch gets really funky, then drop that in your plastic garbage container (remember, these patches have been soaked in acid solutions! It cannot rust any further. For more information on using a blowtorch and protecting the steel, scroll down! The reason why blued guns rust is that something was allowed to attack the surface blueing and get through it to new steel or the blueing job wasnt deep enough to complete passivate the surface from red rust. Safety notes: Dont use an aluminum pan. Also buffing wheels pre blue. You can improve your results by doing two things: 1. You can then use a soft brush to gently remove all the residue of the cleaning solution on the components. Hardened steel prevents knife blades from dulling and tools from bending and breaking. Vegetable oil has a higher boiling point, so the hot steel will take longer to cool and reduce the chance of it cracking. Im not responsible for marital discord as a result of gun projects attempted on the kitchen stove. The bottom of the crucible is opened allowing the contents to drop into the rapidly bubbling water. You can reassemble the gun after. You want to be in the range of 600 to 650F. Most waters in the Rockies clear out to the west coast will have high(er) dissolved solids in them. Dang it all. Note: I know a plastic container is pictured but always use a metal one! Add the two together and you have what is akin to rocket fuel in your face a way of oxidizing almost any organic material with insufficient water for cooling into a furious flame. Learn more Steel is a common durable alloy, and while most steel used in tools is already tough, you can harden it even more to prevent wear and tear. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! Heres instructions from Mark Lee Supplies on using their Express Blue #1. Hardening will cause it to be more brittle, which could cause the hammer to chip and cause injury. Knowledge is the power and fear is the opposite of power it cripples the mind and the body and almost always guarantee's a poor decision will be made. Bluing involves an electrochemical conversion coating resulting from an oxidizing chemical reaction with iron on the surface selectively forming magnetite (Fe3O4), the black oxide of iron. It costs an arm and a leg, and you can buy 0000 so cheaply at Wally World that it makes the acetone method worth your while. It is named after the blue-black appearance of the resulting protective finish. All About Bluing Steel Stainless Steel Necessary Gears and Tools Procedure Step 1: Ready the bluing tank Step 2: Process the components of the gun Step 3: Suspend Copyright 2023 Flixsterz. When everything is set up, put on your protective gear and then get down to business. Reply JUST DONT. I want to add rainbow color to safety razor blades that would be used again, how can I do this? Now, using the information above, you should have little problem bluing your firearms on your own. Posted December 21, 2009. Repeat 3 times. This article received 28 testimonials and 92% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. You need to adjust the boiling point of the salts for your altitude. This is often achieved without chemicals by simply heating the steel until a blue oxide film appears. This process leaves a deep blue-black finish. Thoroughly degrease the area to be reblued with acetone. It is a difficult product to apply evenly, offers minimal protection and is generally best used for small fast repair jobs and touch-ups.[2][3]. Please be careful with the cold bluing solutions. $36.73. You have entered an incorrect email address! With. Do this outside, so you can do this next part: Just whip the steel wool at arms length to extract the excess acetone. It will instantly vaporize into steam and splash all over you. Its easy enough to color metal with a torch, but it has always been a hit-or-miss process for me, and when it was a big hit, I was rarely able to re-create how it got that way. I have to finish my M76 and Galil first and buy the materials. The steel is also used for producing great police flashlights with awesome durability. Above you can see some example pictures of the colour shades that can be achieved with this techniques. Blue or Black rust is complete passivation of the steel surface Fe3O4. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. I found through my bluing adventure that different oils do act slighty different but ultimately everything I've used has done the job. Ive learned a LOT. Hopefully these concepts suggest caution and diligence for what you are doing. -A heat source. ], 5 years ago, I found that heating will turn steel silver ~> gold ~> violet ~> blue. Isn't the point of the acetone to degrease, why would i grease? Slow rust blueing can take a week or more to accomplish, but it is a durable blue job like no other. Technically speaking, bluing is more or less a conversion of red iron oxide (Fe2O3) to black iron oxide (Fe3O4). All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. Ill be buying the stainless tubs and chemicals to do it and go for as close to black as I can get. Most knives, rifle receivers and barrels are heated to at least 1200F and cooled and drawn at 490F-700F. Once you get the colour you want, go outside to your oil container and fully quench your object into the oil! Rust bluing is also used on shotgun barrels that are soldered to the rib between the barrels, as hot bluing solutions melt the solder during the bluing process. Instead of applying the acid solution directly to the metal parts, the parts are placed in a sealed cabinet with a moisture source, a container of nitric acid and a container of hydrochloric acid. After that, slowly and steadily stir the solution in, Step 2: Process the components of the gun, Wait for 10 15 minutes and then take out the components. This method must not be used on critically heat-treated parts such as receivers, slides or springs. "width": "1500", For this reason, it is considered not to add any appreciable thickness to precisely-machined gun parts. Ships from and sold by Direct-Wholesale. Youre just using stump remover to do it. 6 years ago. SO, DG; unless I missed it, I am assuming the torch is used separate from heating the tank/ container with the boiling solution. ", not only fun, but also profitable. (meaning oxygen atoms are able to attach themselves to the outer layer of the steel)We did this with an electromagnet! Just let any residual matter evaporate/dry. Heat the area you'd like to drill just until it starts to glow red, then allow it to cool slowly. You can make a Caustic Soda KNO3 water bath: 65% Lye (aka sodium hydroxide) This crucible was heated to 730C (1,350F) for up to 6hours (the longer the heat was applied the thicker the case hardening). The robot gives the steel valve seat a quick blast with liquid nitrogen and drops the seat right in place. The part you want to place in the receiving part is cold often just placed in a freezer for a few hours. If you do not get crazy and over heat the steel there is no reason to be fearful of the process. Premium fencing blades are often offered with a blued finish. How to Blue Bluing Steel Using Oven Or Torch and Oil Method. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Dont want to get any of the liquid on you its 700F. This heating forms the blue on the plate. The use of stainless steel alloy varies a lot from one manufacturer to the other and thats why the bluing effect wont always be consistent. This item: Special Blue Full Metal Butane Torch (Gold) - Refillable Flame Lighter- Culinary Torch - Welding Torch - Adjustable Dual Flame for Desserts, Creme Brulee, BBQ and Baking. Thank you, DG! After that, slowly and steadily stir the solution in the tank to dissolve the salt. Dont leave cold blue solutions around anywhere pets or kids could get at them. Then you can express blue it with a propane torch and a tank of boiling water. No one can even tell you what the heat treat is on a 1895 Mauser for instance yet we do not wet ourselves before we shoot one! Soft, low-carbon steel was used, but strong materials were needed for the receivers of firearms. That said, heres the truth: The best blueing you can have on a gun is simple, safe to do, but takes a long time. Always wear goggles and gloves when operating a propane blow torch. Its essential to keep stirring the tank to prevent the forming of hot and cold areas. "https://theshootingmystery.tumblr.com/", 500F-600F is often all that is needed and the parts can be done over and over again you just have to clean between each attempt. Use a steel tool to stir (remember the fumes). I used Express Blue #1 on lots of guns, where I want something less labor intensive than slow rust blueing (which I wont describe here): most steel wool isnt oil-free. You heat the outside member only when you do a shrink fit.). The book claims they used wait for it "boiling gasoline" not making this up to clean them. NaOH is nasty stuff. Frequent TTAG commenter Dyspeptic Gunsmith saw the gun above in our postA Garden Gun Cultivates a Newfound Fascinationand answered reader questions about blueing/reblueing a gun thusly: If the rust is very fine and there is still substantial blueing left on the gun, you might want to strip the blueing. fascinated with blacksmithing, but have not had an income to even get it started. To obtain oil-free steel wool, get some acetone in a container (say, an old, clean yogurt container you were going to throw away anyway). "datePublished": "2022-03-27", "publisher": { No. I have always wondered about storage in gun soft cases or the foamed Hard cases, and humid or dry, heat and cold. Its a pretty straightforward process. Reply Drift the sights back in from the right side of the barrel. Either that or the steel wool. Below is a link to a video I found on YouTube that shows the process. These work by depositing a coating of copper selenide on the surface. February 20, 2016 at 16:12. DG thank you. Never know when it will come in handy. This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer. You have a degreased gun, and now you need to get the metal hot enough that the reaction will oxidize the steel as much as possible. If you havent done it before, wait until I mention some items about it. The downsides are: the safety issue, which I laid out above, and which youve made clear. Hot bluing is the current standard[6] in gun bluing, as both it and rust bluing provide the most permanent degree of rust-resistance and cosmetic protection of exposed gun metal, and hot bluing takes less time than rust bluing. If you dont drain the barrel or action recesses properly before putting a barrel or action into a hot salt tank, then you will find out in a hell of a hurry as the water flashes to steam under the surface and again, splatters hot, highly caustic lye/nitrite salts all over you and your shop. Just use distilled water. Bluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust using a black oxide coating. "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", on Introduction, looks nice but you are using what is known as heat treatment which will darken steel, not using bluing salts as in gun bluing of rifle barrels all in all very nice instructable, Reply In the hot salt process, you will need, oh, four to six tanks, only one of which will be the heated blueing salts. The ideal setup is a pair of long sleeve gloves along with splash goggles and a face mask. Todos los derechos reservados. It is generally employed on smaller parts such as pins, screws, sights, etc. Bluing is often a hobbyist endeavor, and there are many methods of bluing, and continuing debates about the relative efficacy of each method. Ive used this method in a pinch to make a tap from a cheap mild steel bolt to chase out galled female threads. Next comes the main part. If you drop a piece of paper in there, or hydrocarbon compounds (like oil or grease on your part). NaOH will quickly and completely dissolve aluminum. Then wipe off all excess oil and look at your beautiful finished object! Ill detail why. The blue appearance of the oxide film is also used as an indication of temperature when tempering carbon steel after hardening, indicating a state of temper suitable for springs. Oh mas oui.Express blueing, slow rust blueing, hot salt blueing, nitre blueing, carbona blueing all are better than cold blueing. When polishing something like the above rifle/shotgun, youve got a pretty light coat of rust, without severe pitting. Color case hardening is the predecessor of all metal coloring typically employed in the firearms industry. -2x containers (one of them preferably being metal for the oil), -unleaded petrol/Acetone/Terpentine/Rubbing alcohol or any good degreaser, -metal object/s (I used mild steel, Please note this method should NOT be used on tempered/hardened steel as you will effect the properties of the metal). "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6dwEQfHK1tk_ZeaA4PniOA/", These processes were later abandoned by major firearm manufacturers as it often took parts days to finish completely, and was very labor-intensive.