Will someone explain to me the process of a French Grey finish application on a firearm. Not the electrolysis process.

Adam

The classic method uses a solution of white arsenic, ferric chloride, ferrous sulphate and HCL according to Angier, R.H., Firearm Blueing and Browning. Birchwood Casey now makes solutions that can be applied to give a similar finish.

http://www.birchwoodtechnologi...rolok_mzn/index.html

http://www.birchwoodtechnologi.../microlok/index.html

Blue the parts in a normal hot bluing salts. Next strip the blue finish with Naval jelly. This is the phosphoric acid in most rust removers. Polish lightly with a pink eraser and then coat with a thin layer of TruOil. Let dry several days.

Les, it's that easy? I will give it a go.

Adam

Naval Jelley works well.
Very dilute nitric at room temp works very well (1tbs /per gal of water).
Put the clean part in and watch the color change. Use a brush to agitate the liquid on and around the part.

Some will change over quicker than others due to different steel types. Harder heat-treated areas will darken more than softer steel.
So you have to work at it a bit with the old pink eraser to even up the color. That seems to be one thing that's common among most of these methods.

I never tried dilute hydrochloric acid (muriadic). It'd most likely work, I just haven't needed to try it out. It does remove heat scale (very slowly) from parts and leaves a gray tone finish on the steel though.

Ferric chloride solution will grey color steel nicely. It's circut board etch solution, same stuff used in damascus finishing.
Don't use it anywhere near full strength, it'll etch deeply and very quickly.
1% to 5% at most. Room temp. Protect the bore if doing a bbl of course. You can get in trouble with this stuff as opposed to the above.

TidyBowl (Drain?) Cleaner is what Kenny Hurst uses. Mix up a batch in water and after all the fumming and bubbling is done, dunk the parts in and do the same watch the color change as with the other home methods. Pink Pearl suggested to even things up.
I think that stuff he used has lye in it,,or did,, as well as aluminum metal chips that when activated by the water makes all the comotion. Most all the liquid in a bottle stuff has Hydrochloric acid in it. Don't know about using any of that.

Most anything w/a very weak acidity will work.
But something in an even solution to dunk the parts in works best.
Parts have to be absolutely clean. None of these will clean while they work. If there are fingerprints on the metal,,they will usually show in the gray finish.

No real need to blue the parts first, it'll just remove the blue anyway before turning the surface gray.
You can blue first and then gray specific areas if you're careful. Masking the ajoining area with shellac or varnish works well and then use Naval Jelley very carefully.

Some of the projects done that way are just masked off and then dusted with an airbrush loaded with a fine particle blast like bakingsoda or other like medium. It doesn't do anything to the metal or any engraving there, but does remove the bluing and leaves it gray tone. Nice contrast.
A simple pencil type eraser will also do for small areas where you want to remove blue to highlight a figure or engraving, ect in a gray tone.

There's many ways to get the look, that's only a couple that I've used.

sandblast then flat lacquer.

quote:

The classic method uses a solution of white arsenic, ferric chloride, ferrous sulphate and HCL

Im just curious who was the first lunatic the drop all these chemicals in a pot and see what happened...

They did not have MSDS sheets or OSHA regulations then. Most of the early chemistry was based on the theory "I wonder what happens when I mix this stuff together"...

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:

quote:

The classic method uses a solution of white arsenic, ferric chloride, ferrous sulphate and HCL

Im just curious who was the first lunatic the drop all these chemicals in a pot and see what happened...

"Hold my beer and watch this"-----its how progress is made!

quote:

Originally posted by richj:
sandblast then flat lacquer.

Piss can flat laquer?

Permalac

If you want a truly rust preventative finish have it electroless nickeled, matte.

That 1911 actually looks really good.

Thanks!