Rust Bluing

[mikajo39]

Hey everyone Mike here. This is my first post on the form here and was wondering if you guys had any tips or how-to's on rust bluing. I've read up quite a bit on it and it seems the major disadvantage is it takes quite a long time to do. But! No biggy Sacramento state is going on winter break and I'm going to have a good 40 day break to blue AK47 parts. I have some pictures here of some practice runs I've done on a bolt and an old butt plate. Edit: I'm using Laurel Mountain forge Browning/bluing solution and am applying the solution with a cotton rag, then setting to rust for 1-3 hours.

First pic is the first boiling of the steel nut and the butt plate.


Everything seemed to darken as it was supposed to.

Nut after it's first coat pre-carding.

Now I've read people card with different things from light wire wheels, to light grit sandpaper to a hot wet rag, anyone know whats best? Because I think I may not be carding it correctly and hurting the bluing process. I've been using the Hot rag method so far and it never seems to get all the black oxide off.

Here's the nut after two coats only using a hot wet rag to card in between.


I forgot to snap a picture of the butt plate but the results so far are similar to the practice nut. I just want to get it down before I blue this guy since stripping it down all the way takes some time, here it is about half stripped.


Sorry for the long post guys just thought I'd see what yah guys have to say!
-Mike

[Arisaka]

I used a wire brush to card. Please don't forget to wear a mask. I didn't and coughed up some blood. Very scary. Your parts look nice! Very dark for the first pass.

[4thSBCT]

Even with a wire bush its hard to get all the black oxide off, after a little while it will eventually go away. A few things I've noticed about rust blueing, You can use Steam instead of immersion boiling for larger items that might not fit inside a pan.

Also to save time, you can apply a coat wait 1 hour apply a second coat and then let sit 3-4 hours for faster results.

[mikajo39]

I used a wire brush to card. Please don't forget to wear a mask. I didn't and coughed up some blood. Very scary. Your parts look nice! Very dark for the first pass.

Woah, what kinda blueing agent were you using? The Laurel Mountain Forge stuff by what I can tell is pretty benign, doesn't even have a smell, although I do wear a mask when I sand, nobody likes breathing nasty paint and rust.

[mikajo39]

Even with a wire bush its hard to get all the black oxide off, after a little while it will eventually go away. A few things I've noticed about rust blueing, You can use Steam instead of immersion boiling for larger items that might not fit inside a pan.

Also to save time, you can apply a coat wait 1 hour apply a second coat and then let sit 3-4 hours for faster results.

I was wondering about applying a second coat, how hard to you usually scrub with a wire brush? I always feel like I'm just going to rip the bluing right off if I scrub too hard.

[4thSBCT]

I was wondering about applying a second coat, how hard to you usually scrub with a wire brush? I always feel like I'm just going to rip the bluing right off if I scrub too hard.

Don't scrub anything between coats. Just apply a really thin almost dry coat with a Q tip over whats already started rusting from the 1st coat.

Prep metal, apply coat, wait 1 hr, apply 2nd coat, 4 hr wait, boil, card, done.

[Arisaka]

Woah, what kinda blueing agent were you using? The Laurel Mountain Forge stuff by what I can tell is pretty benign, doesn't even have a smell, although I do wear a mask when I sand, nobody likes breathing nasty paint and rust.

It wasn't the agent (Brownell's Rust Blue), it was the dust man. That **** goes everywhere when you are going to town with a brush. Pay attention to 4thSBCT, he did a thread on the steam method, works great. He's done some amazing **** on here.

[bodiebill]

Rust Browning

I've done "rust browning" on some Hawkin rifles. As I recall it likes a warm humid atmosphere, which doesn't naturally exist in California. A humidity cabinet was helpful. Don't know if that is recommended for rust bluing or not.
Just a thought to consider.

[darthnugget]

The other downside is it is messy. I doubled up on the nitrile gloves when i did mine. I am going to try the Rustoleum appliance epoxy this weekend hopefully that is faster, cleaner, durable, and just as nice. From some other posts it looks as so.

[mikajo39]

darth let us know how that Rustoleum job goes, curious to see. So far my bluing is doing pretty well, I'll post some pictures later to show you how it's going.