[torpeau]

Will cold bluing cover up holster wear showing in the original bluing or will it also discolor the original and give a mottled appearance? Also, how about small spots (pinpricks) of rust, does it deal with that problem?

 

[bscman]

In my experience, it will discolor your original bluing...
If you're going to cold blue, you need to do the entire part, or it's going to look pretty bad...then you have to deal with the fact that cold bluing doesn't wear as well

 

[84BJ8]

Cold Bluing will keep the bare metel from rusting. May not look nice, but helps. You do need to get the rust off before the Cold Bluing goes on.
GES........................

 

[Parisite]

I guess my experience has been a little different but the instances I have applied cold bluing it has had no effect on the original bluing and has looked pretty good. Not as good as the original but it helped the looks considerably. I always took the rust off first however.

 

[pwhited]

I've had little luck cold bluing a Mak. I did an old Russian 12 ga shotgun that came out looking beautiful, but the Maks just don't look right to me. Even stripping it to bare metal, I've had zero luck. Hardness of the metal maybe?

 

[bscman]

I used oxpho blue over the original bluing on an 870 wingmaster and it lightened the original stuff, and you could see where the old wear patterns were--the new stuff was blotchy against the original.

Birchwood casey's super blue was even worse! Biggest mistake I've made in a while...

 

[torpeau]

I used oxpho blue over the original bluing on an 870 wingmaster and it lightened the original stuff, and you could see where the old wear patterns were--the new stuff was blotchy against the original.

Birchwood casey's super blue was even worse! Biggest mistake I've made in a while...

Thanks, all, for the input. Looks like I'll leave well enough alone. I guess if you want to make a pistol with holster wear look new, you would have to have it professionally re-blued -- and that would diminish any collector value. A few decades ago I had a Broomhandle Mauser and a Lahti re-blued for $10 a piece. I wonder what it costs now.

 

[Parisite]

Don't get me wrong, when I stated the instances I've put cold bluing on a Mak that looked good were little tiny touch-up places. In no way would I try to cold blue an entire gun. Just wanted to clarify myself.

 

[bscman]

I've cold blued a few entire firearms...the key is a thorough degreasing, even application, and a little bit of heat.

Here is a remmy 511 scoremaster (1956yr production) I refinished as a gift. It was cold blued with OxphoBlue (2 applications) after all the metals parts were heated with an electric heat gun.
This was, of course, after ALL the metal parts were stripped of their original bluing (Naval Jelly doest removes bluing!) and all parts were cleaned up with a 600grit wetsand to remove pitting/blemishes.

It's not the best pic, but you can see how dark the bluing is...as well as how even the application is. (This rifle was a $50 rust pit when I purchased it).

Unfortunately, cold bluing isn't usually a resilient to scratches/wear as a hot bluing would be...but it's been just over a year since that .22 was refinished and it still looks like new--but it's only been taken out and shot a handful of times.

 

[Deltaboy]

REm 22

Looks good

 

[ab4ka]

I've never used it myself, but my brother has had excellent results with a product called "Van's Instant Gun Blue". If you pull up their website at http://www.vansgunblue.com/
the picture in the upper right is a Turk Mauser that he reblued with it. I've seen it and it turned out beautifully. I keep meaning to try it myself sometime but haven't gotten around to it.