Blueing Question????

David Loukides

David Loukides

Joined
Mar 17, 2006
Messages
1,363
Hi Guys,
I was wondering how you get that BRIGHT electric blueing on a blade?
Does the steel type matter? Who does a reasonable job?
Any Ideas?????
Thanks.
 
i think that comes from a mirror finish. when i redone my pistol i had a mirror finish on the barrel but not the frame and my buddy told me to dull it some.
 
Although I have not tried it, I wanted the same electric blue on one of my rifles. It is called nitre bluing.

http://www.davenoringunmaker.com/images/photo 15.jpg

Look at the mauser claw on that rifle in the pic. Nice rifle, although I personally do not like the gold inlay o the engraving on the stock. I feel that any metal inlay on a rifle deserves to be kept on the metal.

Doug Turnbull does an awesome job bluing, but looking into how hot he has to heat the blade might come into play with messing up the temper. I really dunno how hot so it might not be a big deal, but this information is nice to know...
http://www.turnbullrestoration.com/store.asp?pid=19567&catid=19872
 
You can get the bright blues first by polishing and then by either heat coloring or by using Nitre Blue salts. Both of these finishes I find are very fragile and have a tendency to wear quite easy. They simply coat the metal with a micro thin layer of oxidation.

Here is an example of the Nitre Bluing. After handling this knife a few times, the bluing started to wear on the edges.
bdss.jpg



I decided I did not want a knife that you could not handle so I rebuffed and had it Hot Blued by a professional. Here are those results. The knife actually looks like black pearl and as you can see, the damascus shows through just fine.

collage.jpg
 
For Nitre Bluing, the salts need to be 575 degrees or above for the colors to begin to show. Some people say it messes with the temper. It's only in the salts for a short time so I don't think it would have much of an effect on the temper.
 
Thanks Guys,
Bill, Who carries the salts???
Whats going on is my apprentice has a Dagger he is planning to make.
Most other apprentices I would discourage the Bluing. But I Believe he has the ability to make a Dagger that the bluing would add to the over all look. But one step at a time.
Thanks Again!!!
 
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