Richard Boothroyd’s Blog

What do you guys think of spraying hammer finish paint on a rifle barrel instead of the traditional blueing job?

Bloody horrible, Brett, but I’m a traditionalist. If you want to paint it
for convenience there are various paint on/bake on finishes available in the
US as I’m sure you know. Try Brownells. There was a dark grey almost
black finish that baked on at 200C used in SA. Name of it escapes me right
now but I’ll check. Finish is a non-reflective semi matt sheen, quite
nice.

Cost of a blueing set up plus salts for one gun is quite high but not
necessarily prohibitive. A rifle barrel on it’s own can be blued in a slim
tank, not more than 75 wide x 100 deep. A piece of thin wall channel with
ends welded would do fine, and cheaper than getting one made up from sheet
steel. If you can make one from sheet so much the better. A single gas
heat source should be enough but a double electric hot plate will do nicely
for not much more than R100. Of course you need two tanks thus two heat
sources, so it does cost something. Last time I bought blueing salt it cost
R200 per can, and that’s more than you need for one barrel.

Of course it’s more viable for more than one gun and more viable for
handguns, not so much because of smaller tanks as because a single burner is
enough while barreled actions need long tanks and usually more than one
burner. Blueing is a service not widely available at a cost typically R600
last time I asked. I used to reckon that an individual could put together
a very simple set up for that money and that it would definitely be worth
doing his own for two guns. The learning experience alone is worth it.

I use my primitive blueing set up for blueing jigs and tools that I make.

I learned so much polishing and blueing a few guns that wasn’t in any of the
books that I started writing my own book, but abandoned it when I realised
there’s no market. If you feel like giving it a go I’ll send you what I
have. It’s easy, it’s the little hitches and glitches that cause the
headaches. You just need to know what those are.

[Originally posted to SATalkGuns -- Admin]