Reblue

[65284]

Has anyone here ever reblued a gun? I've got an opportunity to buy an old Nylon 66 for cheap, I would like to buy and refurbish it for my grandson.

It's sound mechanically but pretty rough appearance wise, a good bit of light surface rust and rub through on the blueing.

I think the light rust would buff away easily, does it take much equipment, special tools, etc. to do a decent job of reblueing?

What about cold blue as opposed to hot blueing, how difficult/expensive is either process? I suspect the hot blue is more difficult and expensive, is it enough better to justify the extra cost and/or labor?


Any input appreciated.

[Ed Norman]

If the cold blue was superior, every gunsmith would do it. But they all hot blue. If you want to hot blue, you will buff the old finish off to bare metal, and buff the bare metal until it is polished to your satisfaction. Then a brief swim in 3 or 4 tanks of bubbling lethal chemicals and salt bath at high temp will give you a great blue.

On the other hand, Brownells sells several cold blues that will work pretty good on bare metal or even over cleaned faded blues. Any of them would give a nice enough finish to make a grandson happy.

[tryinhard]

I bought a cold blue kit at Wal-Mart several years ago. Once I sanded and buffed the barrel the instructions said to wash in dish soap and rinse in hot water. I did it by the book and my brother in law is still using it to kill turkeys.