Ask DS. Gun blue kits

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matador1
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Ask DS. Gun blue kits

Postby matador1 » Sun Sep 21, 2014 6:29 pm

I've got an old marlin 22 that wasn't taken care of by previous owner but shoots straight. I want to pretty it up a little and use it as a squirrel gun. Anyone ever used one of the bluing kits from wal mart or BPS?
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Wildfowler
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Re: Ask DS. Gun blue kits

Postby Wildfowler » Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:57 am

I haven't got much to offer on this but I did use one of those kits to try and repair a missing spot of bluing on a rifle I had.

I never could get the spot as dark as the surrounding bluing but I did get bluing on the bare metal and to this day it does offer the same amount of protection that the rest of the rifle has.

If you are wanting protection then the kit is no problem to use. If you are wanting it to look restored it may be better to let a professional do the task.
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Re: Ask DS. Gun blue kits

Postby kb7722 » Mon Sep 22, 2014 7:01 am

Check midway usa. They probably have some instructional videos.
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Re: Ask DS. Gun blue kits

Postby teul2 » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:40 am

If you really want to do it well, get a gunsmith to do it.
Or get it coated by Birdsong.
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Re: Ask DS. Gun blue kits

Postby MudHog » Tue Sep 23, 2014 6:37 pm

I tried blueing a 410 bolt action years ago with no success. I would strongly consider having a gunsmith do it. Now, if your not looking for blueing, take a look at cerakote. Cerakote is a tough coating and not that expensive to get done.

I will say this to those who want to touch up blueing. There is a blueing pen at Academy. That thing works wonders! I used one when I was building my 1911 to touch up areas that I worked on.
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stang67
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Re: Ask DS. Gun blue kits

Postby stang67 » Tue Sep 23, 2014 7:12 pm

IMO, DIY bluing kits are for hiding a small imperfection or preserving an invisible portion of bare metal, not as a substitute for a real bluing job intended to look good.
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Re: Ask DS. Gun blue kits

Postby duramax » Mon Sep 29, 2014 9:07 am

I did the DIY cold bluing of a couple of my guns with the basic Birchwood Casey kits from Bass Pro about 12 years ago. One was a 50 year old single shot 22 that was my dad's dad's, and the other was an old Stevens SxS that was my mom's dad's that was also close to 50 years old. Neither were anything special overall as far as being worth much other than the nostalgia of being owned by my grandfathers. Both were in fairly good shape with very little rust on them, but the barrels and actions were almost silver as the bluing was almost entirely gone. I did the 2 or 3 stages that came in the kit, and they turned out very good. They looked almost as good as you would expect guns of their age that were extremely well taken care of. They didn't look brand new, but they looked like a 50 year old gun in very good shape. They probably didn't look as good as if they were done by a gunsmith or if they were hot blued, but I did 2 guns for about $20 and 2 or 3 hours of my time. The SxS has received little use since I did it (maybe taken out of the safe 5 times) and duck hunted with in ideal conditions. It still looks almost as good as when I did it aside from edges of the muzzles of the barrels where there was some wear from being taking in and out of a gun case a handful of times. That was definitely well worth the effort for it. The single shot has not been in a safe every minute when it wasn't in use and has been exposed to the humidity variations, but hasn't been abused. The bluing has worn off the high spots, but overall still looks better than it did.

What you need to keep in mind is that a cold bluing kit will do very little as far as protecting the metals from corrosion. Better than nothing, but your goal with bluing the gun yourself should be solely for aesthetics. If you really do want to protect the metal on a gun you will use frequently for hunting, buy one of the parkerizing type kits. They run about $50 or so, and you bake it on the metal, and it create a real barrier to the elements.
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Re: Ask DS. Gun blue kits

Postby Deltaquack » Mon Sep 29, 2014 7:52 pm


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