Fahrenheit; not that sissy Celsius 23!
I get asked this question; why does my rust bluing come out streaked black and brown? Here is why: you didn't pre heat your metal, especially heavy ones. Here is one I did today; this morning it was 23 degrees and I did the final steam of a total of three. Often you only need one or two just to make sure. This is a 74 Sharps I am building; came out streak free. I coat them with linseed oil when they are still hot. I pre heat them with a propane torch before putting them into the steam. Now, surface prep is important; this one I did with stones which keeps the flats, flat, (never buff them) and degrease with Xylene, then scrub with a ScotchBrite pad and Tide powder; that really gets the surface to take the bluing solution.
Of course, I use Bobster's American Blue solution; can't go wrong. So now, I just gave away my secrets and now no one will send me any more $300 rust blue jobs. Frowny face here. You are wondering why it has a 1917 Enfield sticking out the top? Sharps has the same threads. It's just a barrel holder.
It's a 45-70 and Ken Howell did the CCH.

Very nice job on the barrel and action. Sounds like you have it down pretty good.

Steve........

Lookin' good!

Forget about the rifle----you should have the neighbors scratching their heads every day !!!

Hip

No one can see what I do: paint jeeps in the side yard and my blast and polish shed is in the back. Test fire stump in there too; no one notices or cares. That building in the background is full of Army Jeeps.

Tom,
What's the humidity like at 23 degrees? Here in Georgia where it is generally plenty humid enough to rust blue without a humidity cabinet, the humidity does drop when it gets cold. It sounds like the bluing solution you use is pretty tolerant of atmospheric humidity.

Concerning Jeeps, or more precisely 1/4-ton trucks, my first job as a field artilleryman was as a forward observer to a mech infantry company in the 2d AD at Ft Hood. After thousands of hours of bumping across the impact area and being towed across streams by APCs, I developed an aversion to 1/4-tons. Our M151s were beaten to death by severe misuse and we depended upon parts scrounged from the cannibalization point to keep them running. Of course in Army fashion, we weren't allowed to put the canvas tops on and got thoroughly drenched when it rained. Old war stories for sure, but these days I'm quite happy to tool around in my heated and air-conditioned Ford Explorer.

Humidity at 23 degrees here is 70%; however I wouldn't do the rusting cycle outside; so I do the actual rusting inside, in a damp cabinet. In the summer, the humidity here is just like Georgia; 90%. I only use Bobster's American Blue solution. Still need humidity for it to rust. I do the steaming outside to keep all the steam/moisture out of the shop. Today it was 15.
Yes, I, too, was in M151s for at least a million miles, and those were some of the worst designed vehicles we ever had. (Remember you were a year ahead of me to get onto Active Duty). Independent suspension caused a lot of accidents and injuries and even deaths. I wouldn't take one for free; I restore only the solid axle Willys design; WW2, and post war. I don't drive them in the winter though.

Thanks for the photo of the steam cabinet, I got so excited I went out and made one. Will try it out soon.
I rotated out just after we transitioned out from the M38A1's to the M151 I kinda liked them as we could out run the German jeeps. The only accident while I was there was some idiot up set the CO's jeep and wiped out the radios. As I recall there was a MWO to add a suspension upgrade to stiffen the rear ends but never seen them after wards.

There were several mods made to the suspension; the M151A1 and A2 were "improvements". However, in the late 70s TACOM developed the ROP (Roll Over Protection) Kit, which had a roll bar and seat belts, since the original design was still crap and soldiers were still getting killed.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
I coat them with linseed oil when they are still hot.

Wait, what?? Linseed oil? On the newly rust blued metal?

You must not have read the thread (fourth one down) on "oil after rust bluing".
Yes, linseed oil. NO modern oils. That is what I do; others are free to use anything they want.
I do not understand your frowny face.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
You must not have read the thread (fourth one down) on "oil after rust bluing".
Yes, linseed oil. NO modern oils. That is what I do; others are free to use anything they want.
I do not understand your frowny face.

Not frowny, just confused. I suck at rust blueing. I just saw the other thread. Maybe someday I will get better at rust blueing, but I havent even tried it for several years. Thank you for the pointers!

It's definitely frowning!
Rust bluing is super easy. Steel wants to rust.
I use only Bobster's American blue.
Most problems are caused by poorly prepared metal.

Ok, it's frowny because I suck at rust blueing.
The last time I tried it was with Mark Lee express blue and it was a miserable failure. I expect the steel prep was my biggest problem like you said. I know that makes a huge impact n the outcome. I could get it to rust, but it was an awful, inconstant mess.
The best luck I had was with Dicropan IM, but as you know that is really more like a jazzed up version of a cold blue. Where do you get Bobsters American blue?

Bob's Blue works very, very well.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobster:
www.rustblue.com

Thanks. Could you tell me a little about the difference between the British Blue and the American Blue?

Prepare the steel like I say above; it will rust evenly. Has to.
Bob's American blue is dead black. Others, I have not used.

I have tried heating the metal before applying the salts. It seems to help. But one problem I have had is with using sand paper in the action area. The barrel itself is easy because of its smooth, single surface. But the action has small variations where during surface prep you have to sand in different directions. In my efforts this shows up (like a sore thumb) in the after math and I've not been able to sort out how to overcome it. I have tried bead blasting and it didnt seem very effective. Maybe the grit I used was too fine. ?? What am I doing wrong?