Anybody ever cold-blue a Ranger RD series blade?

[Guyon]

I'm soon going to pull the trigger on an RD-9, and I think I'm going to ask Justin to do a few mods to the blade shape.

Folks in past threads have noted that the blade coating does tend to wear, so I was thinking of just getting an uncoated finish and then cold-bluing it, maybe with Brownell's Oxpho-Blue. The bluing should help prevent light oxidation/rust, and I think it would look pretty good as well.

Anyone tried this?

 

[Padawan]

My understanding from participating in firearm discussion boards is that cold bluing is not particularly durable or corrosion resistant (although Oxpho-Blue seems to be one of the better options as far a cold blues go). If you're looking for a heavier-duty coating for a blade, you may want to consider something else.

 

[Cougar Allen]

Although it doesn't hold up well, it's easy to touch up as often as necessary.

 

[thombrogan]

You could always rub lemon on all of the exposed steel and wash it clean after the patina has formed. I carved a pumpkin with 52100 (similar to 5160) and the edge turned bluer than an electrocuted Smurf before my eyes. Any pumpkins you could hack nearby?

 

[alex]

I've used Oxpho blue on a bunch of knives and it holds up pretty well. Just rub it in with a small piece of fine steel wool until the bluing is even throughout. Might want to do two or three rubdowns. I have also done the last topcoat rubdown with some Brownell's Dicropan blue and/or Birchwood Casey Superblue to obtain a darker more even blue and the combination of the two types worked well also. For normal knife duties like skinning deer and cutting up meat and such the coatings have been very durable, made the steel more stain resistant, and on some knives it looks very good. The coating is very easy to touch up when it wears.

The cream oxpho I like more than the liquid version. The secret to a nice job is the steel wool rubdown.

Alex

 

[Dog of War]

I've never been real keen on cold bluing, but I've known quite a few gunnies who think Blue Wonder is excellent. I've seen barrels on some very nice rifles refinished with it and they looked like factory jobs.

http://www.bluewonder.us/

 

[Bayoublaster]

I wouldn't cold blue it. Also, if it is stainless steel, it won't blue anyway. Stainless is really hard to blue, in fact, hard enough that we don't do it at the gunsmithing school I'm attending. It requires getting the salts much hotter than regular hot bluing which starts at 270 degrees F here at 1 mile of elevation. Cold blue is really only good for touch ups as has been mentioned. Also, even for touching up screws, I've never really been happy with the results.

Here's a picture of a hot salt blued barrel I did. Polished to matchless finish.