Have you ever thought about the fact that rust doesn't rust ? When I had my engraving co. , we would go thru approx. 2000 guns a year for engraving & bluing. (40 engravers on board) Bluing is simply a form of ferric oxide (rust) applied to bbl. We found and Duelite backed us up on the theory that parts need to stay in bluing tanks for 30 min. and then boiled for another 30 min, (boiling causes rust to set up harder)By appling this process , we found that the color and durability lasted far longer than the usual bluing procedures. While at Colt & Winchester, I found that they only blued a piece long enough (approx. 12 min. to get a blue finish. While this will somewhat suffice, the surface isn't totally encrusted with particles of rust which resist further rusting. It is my belief that the Brownings aren't blued long enough and boiled afterwards. These steps I have outlined would approx. double the cost of appling the finish which is why they probably aren't done this way. Well, that's only one mans opinion but it worked well for us. FWIW, Ken
