Blued receivers

[edgarspencer]

Vinegar will remove hot bluing quite well, though I have found it needs a tiny bit more than a quick dip. It leaves an appearance not unlike French gray. The problem with guns that have been hot blued is that the receiver is often polished before bluing, and usually does require picking up the engraving.

[ArtS]

However you do it, it is pretty simple. I just recently removed the blue on a trigger guard of an English double and it took a little soak. The first time I tried this I was stripping two Ruger No. 1 actions (new) to get case colored, and they literally turned gray instantly. I always suspected this was due to a combination of the gluing process used by the factory and the 4150 steel.

[Bill Murphy]

Art, what did you use for the "instant result" on your Ruger? Was the resulting grey a pleasant appearing grey? Thanks.

[ArtS]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Art, what did you use for the "instant result" on your Ruger? Was the resulting grey a pleasant appearing grey? Thanks.

Household white vinegar. It turned in just a few seconds. The Ruger blueing always looked to me like some sort of surface finish, for want of a better term. It doesn't look like a normal hot blue to me. The ones I have seen reblued remind me of the old Winchester nickle steel guns reblued with a little plum cast to the color.

[Drew Hause]

Harry: a nice example of DelGrego cyanide colors



Bone charcoal recase. Note 'ghosting' around some of the pins



It is possible to recolor actions using cold blue and an acetylene torch, and the results are...uh...not attractive



Krieghoff bone charcoal case coloring, again with 'ghosting'



Krieghoff cyanide colors; used primarily now related to difficulty case coloring the chrome moly (and maybe other stuff which they are not sharing) alloy frames



More on cyanide coloring
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums...55072&page=all