Touch up bluing

[bolus]

Thought I would share a good product I've found for doing some touch up bluing on steel.

Using Birchwood casey perma blue paste. Quite easy to use for small jobs. Just degrease the metal (I use a small cloth and acetone). The paste goes on with a small cotton patch, rub in for 30 seconds and then clean off. Brighten up with some 0000 steel wool.

Birchwood Casey Sporting Goods - Perma Blue® Liquid & Paste Gun Blue (https://www.birchwoodcasey.com/Refinishing/Metal-Finishing/Perma-Blue%C2%AE-Liquid-Paste-Gun-Blue.aspx)

It does not make a uniform bluing but for stuff like my non-collector mauser here it cleans it up a bit. Also nice if you dont want to try and make molten salt in your garage.

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[Bigbaddude]

I have had good luck on small jobs with that stuff but I have found it works even better if you heat the part your bluing with a hair dryer

 

[Andy54Hawken]

With practice you can recreate a worn blued finish on repaired or replaced part to a gun you are restoring.
This is great if you want to "blend in" your repair job on an old gun.
Andy

 

[Velzey]

Metal prep before hand is so important! Looks great btw!!

Over the years I have used all of the small touch ups that are around.
I stumbled upon brownells dicropan. Now it's all I use. For instance if you want to just touch up the new cross pins in your century ak that they installed the front sight all crooked.. Install the new steel pins and then heat the whole gas block with the heat gun till it's warm. I then use the wooden stick type qtips, and apply and hold it there for 30 seconds. The ends of the pins blacken right up and match the rest of the finish. Don't rub with steel wool or anything. Just oil

Then I use dicropan on and old Colt Python. Has a big scratch in it. Decrease the area and once again heat. Apply and immediately wipe it off, then bronze wool it. Decrease and reapply. Repeat until it matches the original finish. Don't rub the bronze wool to hard, but just enough to remove the oxidiation. You can make those oopsie's just disappear....It's amazing what you can do when you just need to touch up.
It also works for large parts! I've actually tried it on a barreled Mauser action and with several applications it looks like a $200 blue job!

They sell it in 4oz bottles and up.

 

[lowly monk]

I used a sharpie for a small worn spot. May go to gun hell for that.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Guilty of that as well ... We used sharpies to "blacken" the brass and shiny metal tips on our field gear while in the army.
Andy

 

[308]

Metal prep before hand is so important! Looks great btw!!

Over the years I have used all of the small touch ups that are around.
I stumbled upon brownells dicropan. Now it's all I use. For instance if you want to just touch up the new cross pins in your century ak that they installed the front sight all crooked.. Install the new steel pins and then heat the whole gas block with the heat gun till it's warm. I then use the wooden stick type qtips, and apply and hold it there for 30 seconds. The ends of the pins blacken right up and match the rest of the finish. Don't rub with steel wool or anything. Just oil

Then I use dicropan on and old Colt Python. Has a big scratch in it. Decrease the area and once again heat. Apply and immediately wipe it off, then bronze wool it. Decrease and reapply. Repeat until it matches the original finish. Don't rub the bronze wool to hard, but just enough to remove the oxidiation. You can make those oopsie's just disappear....It's amazing what you can do when you just need to touch up.
It also works for large parts! I've actually tried it on a barreled Mauser action and with several applications it looks like a $200 blue job!

They sell it in 4oz bottles and up.


View attachment 298895

I've been using Brownells oxpho-blue for a long time. Prep does seem to be the key tho.

 

[bolus]

Thanks, these are great tips. I've been trying to find good cold bluing tricks because I just dont like the idea of setting up some extremely hot vat of stump remover in my garage.

 

[Velzey]

I love it when I see a good deal on an AR or something similar and it's only had a few magazines put thru it the seller says. But you look at it at a little different angle or under sunlight and you see every nick and ding has been covered by black sharpie!!!

 

[NWCustomFirearms]

Thanks, these are great tips. I've been trying to find good cold bluing tricks because I just dont like the idea of setting up some extremely hot vat of stump remover in my garage.

What!? What do mean "extremely hot", it's just under 300 degrees lol

 

[DieselScout]

Will any of these work with shiny bluing? I have an idiot mark on my 1894 Marlin, it's a beautiful gun other wise. I was turning a screw, got in to much of a hurry and scraped off the bluing around the edge of the hole. I'd like to fix it and tried the sharpie trick, but found it just wiped off.

 

[bolus]

Will any of these work with shiny bluing? I have an idiot mark on my 1894 Marlin, it's a beautiful gun other wise. I was turning a screw, got in to much of a hurry and scraped off the bluing around the edge of the hole. I'd like to fix it and tried the sharpie trick, but found it just wiped off.

they darken steel so they all should work. If you have a section under the stock or somewhere you can test first that is always a good thing to do

 

[DieselScout]

they darken steel so they all should work. If you have a section under the stock or somewhere you can test first that is always a good thing to do

Good call, I'll do a bit more reading then go for it. Thanks

 

[Ura-Ki]

For polished blue, I find the Birchwood Casey perma blue works well at matching! Clean the area around the repair, de grease with denatured alcohol then using the wood qtip, lightly rub in and then wipe off with a rag damp with the Alcohol and let sit, rinse and repeat until the finish matches! I re did a polished blue Mauser like that once, and it looked awesome, takes a lot of time, but so worth the effort in the end!

 

[PBinWA]

Birchwood Casey makes touch-up pens in flat, semi-gloss, and gloss black that work great on AR parts and other "black gun" parts that get "used" frequently.

I've done a few guns with the Birchwood Casey kits. They do seem to work ok. I think the heat is the important part that they don't emphasize in their instructions.

 

[OutlawHoss]

I've used Birchwood Casey Super Blue Paste and Brownell's Oxy-Phos for years and yes, it's all the about prep, like most good work. I've tried the touch up pens, with site prep, and they wipe off no matter how long I let it cure. I've done complete re-bluing as well, completely taking barrels, receivers, trigger guards, you name it, down to bare metal, and re-blued with Oxy-phos. It's just a matter of 'repeat until you get the desired finish'; they do work if you'll provide the elbow grease, which is considerable.
I include in my prep a nice sunny work table to set the pieces on before, during, and after; this is often more than enough heat to 'open the pores.' I find after the last treatment, to wait 24 hours as the Oxy-phos tends to really keep working. Then I'll clean and do gun wax, silicon impregnated cloth,or light oil layer.
Same applies for any idiot marks (which is a constant in my world). Alumina-Black works great on aluminum parts, like AR uppers and lowers. Again, works great with prep.
This SBH has been completely re-blued from bare metal with Oxy-Phos, although not recently and has appropriate holster, cylinder wear, which I like.

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

Whilst i'm no expert on any of this, i do have a basic knowledge of what bluing is, so i found this little Brownells video very useful, especially the part about rinsing with water etc. once you're done, you *are* basically making "rust"