SG Home Refinish Options

[Nihonto Chicken]

I've acquired an old Stevens 620 that I'm interested in modifying into a nice, portable HD piece. The stock has already been cut down about an inch by a previous owner, so there's no collectability in this one. The gun is in really good shape, except that the quite thinned bluing has all turned patina (though with remarkably little rust/pitting). Ideally I like to have it parkerized, but the cheapest services I've come across are quite a bit more than what I paid for the shotgun, so it looks like I'll have to go the home brew route. Having done searches here and elsewhere, it looks like these are my best options, considering that I don't want to disassemble the fussy JMB receiver:

1. Cold blue with Oxpho Blue (creme).

2. Cold blue with Wonder Blue.

3. Duracoat.

Right now I'm leaning toward trying the Wonder Blue, but I note that I could just try Duracoat first over the current (degreased) finish and, if not happy, strip it off with no net change. Would appreciate feedback on any/all of these options.

[mikey357]

The cold blues wont have any durability. If it was me, I would learn the disassembly. After taking it apart, I would rust blue it. Remove all existing blue, wet/dry 320 grit paper on bare metal and then use Mark Lee's express blue. The process is rusting it, then boiling in distilled water, card off loose black rust and repeat 6-8 cycles. The metal will become black and the rust blue
is tough. It's so tough that I had the copper rivets on my jeans rub up against a gun and the copper was scrapped off onto the gun. I thought it was a scratch but I found out the rust blue was tougher than the copper and just rubbed off the gun with a little oil.

[Jeffy]

I'd go with parkerizing.

[TheExpertish]

+1 for park'ing...or Duracoat.