I used to skip cold blue until a simple heat trick

I always thought cold blue was useless for real gunsmith work. It made scratches look worse and never matched the old finish. Then I watched a friend warm the metal with a hair dryer first. I tried it on a test gun part and the blue went on smooth. Now I do this for small fixes on blued surfaces. It blends in well and stops rust fast. This little step saved me from many full reblue jobs.

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4 Comments

shane3576mo ago

Heard that too, @the_dakota.

9

the_dakota6mo ago

Yeah cold blue gets a bad rap for good reason. That heat trick is a total game changer though.

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ben1556mo ago

That heat trick is super interesting! Are we talking about just warming the metal with a torch first, or is there a specific temp range that works best? I tried it on an old chisel but the blue was still kinda spotty. Wondering if it works better on certain types of steel compared to others.

1

tarahall6mo ago

Oh man, my buddy totally ruined a plane iron by getting his torch too hot. Burnt the crap out of it and ruined the temper, but hey, the blue was even!

2