Ballistol, or, frankly, any oil, like 3-in-1, with a mix of kitchen roll and very fine steel wool, used gently.
It has probably been discussed before, but I can't find a thread that covers my question. I have an old Haenel rifle that has some small rust pitting over most of the blued metal, and I would like get it looking a bit better without having to get too involved.
How do I remove the fine pits and improve the finish without destroying the existing blue? The Internet lists all kinds of oils and potions, ranging from bluing inks to Balistol, but has anybody got first hand experience of any of these products and how to use them?
It isn't something I have tried myself, so any information would be a great help.
Cheers,
Mark.
Too many guns, or not enough time?
Ballistol, or, frankly, any oil, like 3-in-1, with a mix of kitchen roll and very fine steel wool, used gently.
Daystate Airwolf MVT.22 40ft RUGER77/17hmr RUGER SR22
"DON'T EVER SHOOT A 17 HMR. What ever you thought you knew about 22 rim fires, and loved about them, will be lost forever. It's like dumping your wife for Miss America."
Thanks for the replies; is the aluminium wool in the cleaning aisle? I have never heard of it before, but I would imagine that it is less aggressive than steel wool, I am keen not to end up with a polished steel finish!
Too many guns, or not enough time?
I don't think you can do a little fix on this type of rust.
On an old gun you can remove all rust and old blue with wire wool or whatever does the job.
Then use G96 as per instructions.
This should give acceptable results.
I've done it on a few but I wouldn't do it on anything too valuable or modern.
But older metal seems to rather take to G96.
Or the G96 takes to older metal.
You can see I'm not very technical !
What would the cost of a professional re blue be, just the barrel, i have one that could do with a re blue.
The main area that catches my eye is the breech block, the barrel is pretty good, there are a few bits on the air cylinder too.
I have ordered some Balistol and will get it as good as it can be with that, it is only a £100 plinker project after all!
Cheers,
Mark.
Too many guns, or not enough time?
Daystate Airwolf MVT.22 40ft RUGER77/17hmr RUGER SR22
"DON'T EVER SHOOT A 17 HMR. What ever you thought you knew about 22 rim fires, and loved about them, will be lost forever. It's like dumping your wife for Miss America."
I have used the home-blue liquid and cream preparations a few times, mostly to attempt a complete reblue of an old rifle that is in a terrible state in order to make it more presentable.
Results can be variable. I have had brilliant successes along with abject failures. I well remember one rifle (maybe a prewar Daiana 27?) that I had high hopes for. It really was in awful condition, far beyond the wire wool and oil renovation condition. So I prepared it well and set to. The barrel took the blue very well, the cylinder a little less so as it just refused to get to a rich shiny blue, remaining somewhat dull. The end block was even worse and basically refused to adopt any permanent blue colour, always turning out a dull blueish brown that just did not seem to be permanent in any way. An oil coating helped matters but it never reached the heights I hoped for. I contacted the manufacturers of my blue treatment but they offered no help or advice other than 'follow the instructions'.
I could only conclude my results were influenced by different grades of steel.
And in case you are wondering ... I did not rate the rifle valuable enough to go for a professional re-blue.
Cheers, Phil
Im sure that is the reason Phil.
You never know how it will take.
My Bonehill Brittania ended up a nice patinated type brown with G96.
The end of my Webley Spectre barrel had flash rust but went back to shiny blue with G96, thankfully.
It's the grade of steel for sure why you get different finishes, not just with cold blues either, my 35e action had to have the trigger block re-dipped 3or4 times to get it to match the tube in the hot blueing tank the gunsmith told me.I find with cold blues warming the parts to 70+deg c helps get a deeper finish.