COLD BLUEING Is Best Done HOT ..

Some like it HOT.

LOVELY Marilyn Monroe had a VERY high IQ of 168

- some 'dumb blond' huh

I just watched a commercial magazine video that proclaimed it would reveal the secrets of cold blueing - but it was just an advert for one brand beginning with 'B'.

No secrets then, - BUT me trying to be straight, I reckon .. anything in a bottle that you buy over-the-counter at your gun shop will have an expensive chemically active, secret formula that naturally includes WATER, - mixed acids, selenian dioxide plus COPPER SULPHATE. This coats the iron you are working with in a tiny amount of copper that then gets used in an oxygen swap process ( a REDOX REACTION) that takes oxygen from one goop and adds it to the other, harder goop, the IRON (in your steel) and makes the black'n'blue colour

 IRON OXIDE Fe2+

So, That is clear then .. Better than nothing ..

Now - here's the interesting bit .. Whenever they want to take your money away - they will LIE to you.

- So they call it "COLD" blue to implant the thought that this will be easier & better than using the old fashioned hot methods that involve slow boiling and steaming and carding and polishing and oiling ..

The truth is that their magic blueing stuff will always work much better on HOT steel.. so warm it up first before wiping the goop on and you'll be pleased. Use boiling water or a hair dryer, whatever.

The details will change depending on the bottled choice of chemicals - the instructions, and the variable nature of your steels - but with any luck you'll get a dark coated surface that looks good and will better resist rust when you oil and wax it.

I'm reading good reviews of Brownells OXPHO-BLUE - that can be applied cold using damp cottonwool in multiple applications - with boiling in water in between coats .. to give a decent build-up that looks like proper bluing .. only snag seems to be that it is NOT available here in NZ, and it costs plenty to import.

sighs,

Never mind eh

Are YOU 'Fit and Proper' ..?

IN THE INTEREST OF PUBLIC SAFETY - WE MUST INSIST THAT ALL NZ POLICE EMPLOYEES QUALIFY FOR, & OBTAIN, AND MAINTAIN THE SAME STANDARD NZ FIREARMS LICENCE in exactly the same way that we citizens are required to.

Marty K.

"What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander"