doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Barrel rust blue preparation/polishing

Stan,

You pretty much have to stay off of the lettering except for a couple of final unidirectional passes with whatever grit you are finishing up with.

First I clean the lettering very good with a small stainless brush to clean out the letters, then detail it very carefully with a very small square of 600 grit using the eraser on a pencil as the sanding block for directional and pressure control.






Best Regards,

Doug, can we see a more complete gun pic of that reblued Rem. M-12?

Jay

For pattern-welded barrels it's not only the initial polishing before rusting, but the final polishing as well. That's where my current "learning curve" is. On previous sets everything would be excellent through the rusting and etching cycles, yet the final polishing to bring out the contrast and figure would be lacking. I'm finally getting to the point where it's happening, and I'm fairly comfortable with the process. In fact, all my barrels have not yet had the final lacquer put on them, and the temporary rust inhibitor as well as the lighting results in a slightly yellowish cast to the color. The black-white contrast will be much stronger once I'm done with them. My next step is to buy a couple of "Daylight" bulbs for my lighting fixture.

Jay, the light kind of washed out the pictures.......sorry...

















Best Regards,

On the question of water, is it likely that different solutions react differently to different minerals?
Mike

Thank you, Doug. That helps.

SRH

I think that the water problem is from limestone minerals in the well water, which will leave a slight residue of calcium on the barrels when they dry after boiling. This can leave lines of calcine which will inhibit the next application of the acidic bluing solution, causing variations in the next coat. Put some of your water in a polished stainless pan, and boil it off. The chalky residue is calcium carbonate.

Jawjadawg:

**If you want the standard "American Field Grade" barrel blue finish, polish by hand to 400 grit.

**As you polish keep checking that you have removed all of the flaws/ghosts/dings/pits and other imperfections. Draw file and polish as necessary.

**As you card your barrels after each rusting application CHECK the color as it darkens. When the barrels reach the FIELD GRADE BLUE, as was typical with lower grade American Field Grade guns you merely STOP with your rusting passes,boilings and cardings.

**You will then have a re-blued set of barrels that should look like they did when they left the factory, if you did your homework on color and polished the barrels properly to the best of your ability.

Best Regards,

Thanks Doug! I have one that was my grandfather's and then my dad's. It's in pretty rough shape, nice to see one looking as good as this.

Jay

A couple things I keep handy at my work bench for barrel prep, prior to bluing. I buy schedule 40 PVC in various diameters, and cut it lengthwise to make two halves. I cut these about 11" long, so a sheet of sandpaper fits and just overhangs each end. Depending on the diameter of the barrel, I use an appropriate size piece with sandpaper inside, and work the barrel length in strokes a little over half the barrel length. Then turn the barrel around, and work the other half, overlapping the strokes.
For octagon barrels I have a piece of 1" thick aluminum bar stock, about 2" wide. It is also cut the same length, and I wrap sandpaper around it to work down the finish and prep for rust bluing.
Half octagon barrels I work both halves up to the transition, but when it comes to final polish, I finish the octagon first, and then do the round up to the octagon, so I remove any polishing marks on the octagon from running over on the round portion.