Over my long 4th of July weekend, I polished up a piece a bar stock and gave the gel patinas (linked above) a whirl. Pro's and cons: It looks absolutely stunning. I started with the blue-halo gel, moving it around with my finger. It produced a nice variety of vibrant colors. I then used the blue-black gel, moving it around with my finger. It dulled some of the previous colors, but left the variation. Perfect, just what I was looking for.
Next test for durability. I expected at least as good as any off-the-shelf cold blue. No go. It starts to rub right off with even a single light pass of a clean cotton cloth when trying to dry the part. A few passes with a finger takes it off equally well. Tried oiling it after, doesn't help. Tried renaissance wax after, no help either. I tried re-polishing with courser grit, down to 320, to see if the added surface area would help. No dice. The only thing that will keep this on is a good professional clear coat, which I'm not doing. I don't what the thing to look like its under water.
So, I rust blued the frame, bottom plate, trigger guard, and forend metal on Saturday, and now we have a nice even matte finish on everything. I only did 2-3 iterations. It's not too dark - a nice dull grey but even hue. I'll wait till everything else is done to see if I want to weather it back at all. Spent the afternoon Sunday cleaning up all the screw heads and bluing those, so it's really coming together now
I also 3D printed a .7980 diameter cylinder to check the chamber length. 2-3/4 + 10-20thous. what a relief that was. I wasn't looking forward to finding short ammo. I do reload, but I'm not setup for shotgun.
Next up...checkering and refinishing the stock, then raise the dents in the right barrel.
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