While bluing a set of shotgun barrels I experienced a problem that I have never seen. I got around it but Im not sure why it worked. I thought maybe someone here could shed some light on the subject.
My typical procedure after boiling the barrels is to blow the excess water off with compressed air, then card. On these barrels the excess water around the rib area destroyed the bluing underneath the black oxide. When I carded you could see where every drip of water had run.
My first thought was grease or oil. I started over about 6 times, degreasing, then back into the sandblasting cabinet. Nothing worked. I decided at that point to skip drying off the barrels after boiling and go straight to carding. It worked. Once I had the oxide carded off the barrels if any water got on the metal it did not cause a problem. That is what I do NOT understand. I followed the same procedure for the rest of the job and it turned out fine. Anyone here ever seen this?
