Refinishing an RC6?

wildmanh

wildmanh

Part time Leather Bender/Sheath maker
Joined
Jul 9, 2000
Messages
7,764
In the next few months I plan on buying an RC6 and just had a crazy idea: I have a Ruger Blackhawk thats Blued with Rosewood grips and have always wanted a knife that matches. Have an old Western Cutlery L36 Leather handled Bowie but want something in wood. Been thinking the RC6 would be a great canadate for a refinishing to match the Blackhawk. Anyone else ever thought of doing such a thing? Do you all think the RC6 would look good blued with Rosewood grips along side a Single Action revolver?

Heber
 
I gun blued my Izula....the finish does wear and wil need to be reapplied over time + it will mar from sheath wear.... but should look awesome...somewhere on here a guy blued a RC4 and looks Great ! I say go for it
 
I blued my RC-4.., here are a few pics

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Just picked up some Birchwood Casey blueing from a local Orscheln's.., I think Wally World carries it too. It worked pretty well but I coated it about 3-4 times IIRC because I wanted it a little darker.
 
Thanks fellas! This is most likely the route I will go after the finish takes a beating. Although I have a ways to go after seeing Jeff's "Jungle RC-3" thread....
 
lol., I think we ALL have a ways to go before our Rat's look like that one!!

When you ge to the point that you're gonna blue yours though...
1) Remove the handle scales, although I have seen people just strip the blade and leave the coating under the scales.., it's up to you.
2) pick up some paint stripper(I prefer the gel kind, I used Jasco Premium paint remover from Lowes) and soak the blade in it till all the coating bubbles off
3)Sand the blade till you have a nice smooth finish.., once you remove the coating the blade still has a sort of grayish "coat" on it, although this may be optional I sanded the blade till it was nice smooth bare metal as I wanted to be sure the blueing soaked into the metal good, started with 120 grit and went to 1500 grit
4)apply blueing per instructions on package.., repeat till desired shade is reached

pretty simple.., the hardest part IMO was the sanding, not really hard but pretty time consuming
 
I think that'll be the route I take after the finish is dead on my RATs.

But I've done quite a bit of batoning with my RC-4 and the finish is like kryptonite. It smoothed out a bit but it's still there.
 
Thanks for the support! FatHeadHill, thats a nice looking RC-4! A friend of mine is a Gun Smith and has his own Hot Blue tank so when I get around to doing this project we will use his stuff.

Feel free to keep posting pictures of modified RC knives!

Heber
 
Thanks Wildman!

putting a professional blueing job on an RC-4 would be awesome! Look forward to seeing the pics if you do it!
 
As I am not too familiar with the blueing processes, does hot blueing have advatages over cold blueing?? If so, what?
 
I think hot blueing is more of a professional type of blueing done when the metal is hot., when metal is hot it expands which would cause the pores of the metal to more readily allow the blueing to absorb into the metal.., whereas cold blueing is done with store bought kits., more of a home job.

This is just my guess as I'm too tired to look it up ATM.., :)
 
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