Bluing?

ZigZagZeke · Dec 18, 2010

So, I recently put a Marble's tang sight on my Remington rolling block sporter, and I found that I needed a taller front blade to match it. I decided to remove the old front blade from the dovetail base and make a new blade for it out of mild steel. I put a 3/32nds piece of stainless rod horizontally on the top of the blade so that I can blue the whole thing and still have a shiny tip on the top of the blade. What I'm worried about is that I silver soldered the new blade to the old base and I'm not sure the silver solder won't show after bluing. Anybody got any experience with something like this?

WCTLEGUNSMITH · Dec 27, 2010

Silver solder will show. The only way to make it show less is take your time in the finishing end. Jewelers files, triangle stones, ceramic triangles, 600 or finer sand paper. Take your time-takes 1 second to F' it up. Also less is more. Silver solder has been, and always will be the best way to adhear two dis similer metals together.

ZigZagZeke · Dec 27, 2010

WCTLEGUNSMITH said:
Silver solder will show. The only way to make it show less is take your time in the finishing end. Jewelers files, triangle stones, ceramic triangles, 600 or finer sand paper. Take your time-takes 1 second to F' it up. Also less is more. Silver solder has been, and always will be the best way to adhear two dis similer metals together.

Exactly! I've removed just about all of the visible silver solder with jewelers files and 600 grit paper. It looks like a piece of jewelry now but there's still going to be a very thin line where the two pieces meet. I think I'll just go with it and see what it looks like.

rodell · Dec 29, 2010

If it does show, you can sometimes effectively "paint" a thin line that blends in with a blacking agent. Ultra fine brush and no beer, or use a pen. After it dries, it is "almost" invisible except under very close scrutiny.

ZigZagZeke · Jan 2, 2011

Well, it's done and it looks nice. You can see a faint silver line at the base of the blade and the stainless rod on top is shiny. It actually looks pretty nice just like it is. No need to touch up at all.