Spot rust bluing?

[9245]

I have an old (1870s I think) double barreled shotgun that I am rebuilding and the barrels have some nasty pitting on the outside and have to be refinished, the issue is that they are rust blued and rust bluing is a bitch to do, but the thought occurred to me while I was steaming some dents out of the wood, what if I could use a simular method on the barrel?

What I am thinking is to just polish off the pitting then apply the rusting compound only to the polished area then put a wet terry cloth over it and just use an iron to steam it, just like steaming a dent out of a stock, it would be WAY simpler than building a steaming rig to do the entire barrel, plus I wouldn’t have to polish the whole thing. But would my idea work? Has anyone done something like that before? Would the iron (1,200 watts) mess with the heat treat?

And a related question, the barrel is laminated and I would like to preserve the pattern, I have heard of the method of rust bluing, acid dipping, and repeating about 15 times but is there a simpler method? Could I just complete the acid etch first and then rust blue as a completely separate step? And can I combine the two? I.E. can I just apply the acid to the polished area after I remove the pitting and then rust blue as I described above?

 

[def90]

Do not polish out the pitting! What you can do with a blued or rust blued firearm is boil the parts which will convert the rust in which you then use a carding wheel or carding brush, (not a regular steel brush or wheel, needs to be a carding wheel) to clean up. With the pitting you just run the process a few times until the rust pit gets fully converted back to the black oxide/blued finish.

The second half of this video gets in to it as well.

 

[9245]

There is no rust, just the pitted metal, the rust was already removed, probably years ago.

 

[9245]

Anyone?

 

[Pluribus]

I’m of the opinion that you would be successful in your thoughts to some degree however, I just do not think that you’d be able to blend the surrounding metal area with the new blue to the old blue. Watching the videos Def90 put up and his explanation, which is something I’ve heard of also, can indeed actually help raise some of the old blue back up. My understanding though is that you’ll have varying degrees of results in in individual metal. You can’t help but have some overlap of the new blue to the old blue which will be in your area of blending difficulty surrounding the old spot. It’s will likely always stand out kind of like a ring of blue if you will. No matter how much you Card on that area and try to blend it. Not saying I don’t think it’s impossible but I think you’ve got a fairly difficult task to attempt if you do.
Good luck to you if you do try that and by all means, report back to us and let us know your results. You know we’re a bunch of curious monkeys.

 

[Pat C.]

I've used Track's rust blue solution to touch up patina rifles that have had some form of alterations.
Here is a Winchester 1892 barrel someone hacksawed off and crudely cut sight dovetail.
I machined bad end off to 20" short rifle configuration ,hand polished and crowned muzzle ,recut the new radial tube hanger dovetail.

The barrel is plum brown patina,so I rust browned the fresh machined areas .
Matched perfect. I didn't even card this until done to give a rougher surface matching what was there.
Rust blued areas can touched but in the white metal is where you start.
Various amounts of coats , steaming ,boiling,carding or not .Stopping when a close match.

 

[9245]

I've used Track's rust blue solution to touch up patina rifles that have had some form of alterations.
Here is a Winchester 1892 barrel someone hacksawed off and crudely cut sight dovetail.
I machined bad end off to 20" short rifle configuration ,hand polished and crowned muzzle ,recut the new radial tube hanger dovetail.

The barrel is plum brown patina,so I rust browned the fresh machined areas .
Matched perfect. I didn't even card this until done to give a rougher surface matching what was there.
Rust blued areas can touched but in the white metal is where you start.
Various amounts of coats , steaming ,boiling,carding or not .Stopping when a close match.

Do you happen to have a link to the rust blue that you used?

 

[Pat C.]

As with any rust blue solution, rust Browning can be done by successive coats allowing to finely oxidize until desired color . You can card between coats or at the very end if a rougher surface is desired.

Track's Tried & True Browning Reagent, 2 ounces - Track of the Wolf

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