Parker Bros blueing
 

Lateley I seen a few Parkers that the receiver wher blued, Was this factory or just an afterthought ??????????? Thanks Jack Lyons

It is people who incorrectly blued all the metal. They usually also blue the lever which is incorrect.

Some parker frames may have left the factory in the white, almost all were case hardened, and as I understand it none of the frames to anyones knowledge left blued.

I have physically seen only 1 original Parker with a blued frame and it was a prototype gun. I am sure a few guns over the years MAY have been specially ordered with all blued metal, but that would be the very rare exception.

99.999999% that if you see one with a blued frame, it was done by just some joe blow who wanted to refinish the gun and did it incorrectly.

I handled an L.C. Smith 12 ga. double at the local gun shop just this past week. It was reasonably tight (safe to shoot) but I only held it at the insistence of the exuberant sales guy who knew I was into early American hammerless doubles. It was pitiful. Some jazzbo had buffed the living bejesus out of this poor old gun. Nary a file was involved, nor was the term "rag polished" ever heard or considered. Every edge on that old Elsie that should've been sharp, crisp, and cleanly fitted was rolled, wavy, and just generally looked like something straight outta Poland/Russia/China.

Polishing (as with stones and bonded paper) is an art form rarely seen these days. This was brought starkly to my attention a number of years ago when one of our country's finest engravers asked if I'd spend some time with him sharing what I knew about "precision polishing" (I was polishing plastic injection molds for a living at the time, in addition to doing guns and knives on the side). The buffing wheel and hot-blue salts are pretty much the playground of the amateur, in my opinion. Show me the individual who can do a proper polish and color-case hardening or evenly rust blue the barrels of a fine double and I'll buy that individual any drink they happen to desire, hopefully learning something from the resulting conversation.

The only early American double I'm aware of ever being sold with a blued receiver was the Winchester Model 21. This was a by-product of its chrome-moly receiver being approximately twice as tough as its nearest case-hardened competitor in its natural state. (Whoa, I feel a metallurgy lesson coming on, here!). If you see any of the early guns with a blued receiver, it's probably been poorly handled by someone who couldn't quite make it in fast food or the day-laborer markets.

:cuss:

How hard is the bluing to undo? I understand with hot blued barrels, it basically means relaying the ribs and rebluing correctly. How hard is it to get off the frame?

Not too hard. There are a couple different ways of removing it that will leave a pleasing grayish look. At least more pleasing than bluing.

Tobin Arms Manufacturing Co. had their Black Diamond Model --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...iamondleft.jpg

and offered the "Pyro Oxidized black finish" as an option on all their grades --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Tobingunrt.jpg

The Baker Gun & Forging Co. offered the Black Beauty and Black Beauty Special grades --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...BSEjector2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...BSEjector3.jpg

Also, some of the later H & D Folsom Arms Co. produced Baker Paragon Grades had blued frames and lock plates.

Removing the actual bluing isn't much of an issue, as it's microscopically thin. The usual damage in these cases is almost always the ham-fisted job done preparing the gun to be blued. As mentioned above, French graying the receiver may be an option in some of these cases..

John
First, thank you for sharing your knowledge! What is french graying! I have seen pictures of it but never a gun.
David

Brian, can you explain a little more about the process.

You're welcome, David! French gray is the finish obtained by removing the colored portion left at the surface by the black oxide (hot salt bluing) process. The salts used in this process form a micro-thin layer of hard, black rust at the surface when reacting in the presence of oxygen. The "bluing" penetrates into the surface just a bit beyond the color, though. We can remove the colored portion with the application of a weak acid solution (like phosphoric acid, which most people know as the acid found in Coca-Cola and toilet bowl cleaners) and retain the nearly colorless substrate immediately beneath it. This gray substrate offers nearly the same corrosion resistance as the original finish, which is why french grayed guns resist rust so much better than naked steel. At least that's how it was explained to me, and I got the info second hand from Lynton McKenzie.

There has been plenty of discussion on this topic on the forum here over the past year. A search on it will likely give you all the info you need.

I'm still convinced, in my mind, that all the 'polishing' done to a gun prior to case coloring (such as when a gun is re-colored) is being done all wrong.

There's no reason a gun couldn't be prepared in a manner that does not degrade the engraving. It would take some trial and error but the right process of abrasive media blasting would do the trick.

I had a 16Vh that had been hot blued, I took some apple cider vinegar
put on a soft rag and took the hot blue off and the gun looked great.