I'm a newbie here and probably preaching to the chior. But has anyone else ever used a cold gun blue finish on a blade? I just did.
I had purchaed a finished ground Camillus USMC knife blade on ebay. It came w/a dull grey finish on it. I didn't realize it was the (parkerized?) finish it was supposed to have and polished it off.
Then I saw one of the last Camillus USMC knives off the line, and realized my mistake.
But I recalled reading that the 1st WW-2 issued Camillus USMC knives had blued blades. And as a home hobbiest "gunsmith" (wannabe), I had some Birchwood Casey cold blue. So I decided to give it a shot. And it turned out GREAT. Actually better than any of the guns I used it on.
The secret of cold blueing is heating the metal. Which is often difficult to do properly (at home anyway) on larger gun parts. But knife blades are easy.
Follow the prep direction on the blueing bottle. Then I put the blade in the kitchen oven, set on 200 degrees for a couple of minutes (laid across a small tin pan). Then apply the cold blue as per directions.
It takes several applications to get a good blue color. Each application gets it a little darker. I put on about 7 or 8 applications until I was satisfied it was as good as it was going to get. Not quite as deep and lusterous as a hot blue finish, but pretty close.
Just thought I'd throw this out here in case it might benefit someone.
I had purchaed a finished ground Camillus USMC knife blade on ebay. It came w/a dull grey finish on it. I didn't realize it was the (parkerized?) finish it was supposed to have and polished it off.
Then I saw one of the last Camillus USMC knives off the line, and realized my mistake.
But I recalled reading that the 1st WW-2 issued Camillus USMC knives had blued blades. And as a home hobbiest "gunsmith" (wannabe), I had some Birchwood Casey cold blue. So I decided to give it a shot. And it turned out GREAT. Actually better than any of the guns I used it on.
The secret of cold blueing is heating the metal. Which is often difficult to do properly (at home anyway) on larger gun parts. But knife blades are easy.
Follow the prep direction on the blueing bottle. Then I put the blade in the kitchen oven, set on 200 degrees for a couple of minutes (laid across a small tin pan). Then apply the cold blue as per directions.
It takes several applications to get a good blue color. Each application gets it a little darker. I put on about 7 or 8 applications until I was satisfied it was as good as it was going to get. Not quite as deep and lusterous as a hot blue finish, but pretty close.
Just thought I'd throw this out here in case it might benefit someone.