I recently purchased a rifle from a friend that is beautiful. The only mistake is the milled barrel was done on a stainless steel Kreiger barrel blank not chrome moly. The rifle is wonderful but I can't live with that s.s. barrel. Is there anything new available to make it blue????? I have tried teflon and the finish by craft guard both suck. This is a fine custom rifle and should reflect that quality in the barrel finish.

lb404 '

I know gunsmiths who are blueing stainless barrels from Border, Krieger and L&W. Second option is to black crome this barrel.

Result looks fine

Cheers
/ JOHAN

There are some salts that make it more of a matte black.

Any one have any experience with a black chrome finish? how does it hold up. I see that it comes in a matte finish, so how does it look? Is there any thing out there that looks as rich as a beautiful polished blued gun on good wood? Wayne

What I am looking for is a matte black finish similar to the flat black finish on a pre-64 model 70 receiver. Can anyone furnish a vendor or gunsmith doing this work. I had originally thought that a powder coat would work fine, however, I have not been able to locate anyone willing to do the barrel.

walex,
I had two barrels black chromed. Mine held up very well. The shop I hired said it's all about preparation and polish before adding the chrome. work. My barrels was plated with a thin layer of copper before being chromed. I think Roguard offers black chrome?

lb404
I got a few pictures of a gun with stainless barrel that been blued, send me PM or email.

Cheers
/ JOHAN

quote:

Originally posted by walex:
Any one have any experience with a black chrome finish? how does it hold up. I see that it comes in a matte finish, so how does it look? Is there any thing out there that looks as rich as a beautiful polished blued gun on good wood? Wayne

DeHaan shotguns (Huglu) have "black chrome" barrels. Mine is of the polished (gloss) variety and it is quite handsome.

I've only had it for a few monthes. It has had several hundred rounds (trap and skeet) through it and semms to be holding up well.

DeHaan reccomends the matte finish for maximum durability.

teflon paint... Jack at Cherokee Rifles, Croby Texas, does a good job with this.
black chrome
"black oxide" for stainless (http://www.epi.com)
copper plated and then blacked (not hot tank) the way winchester did them
BBQ paint... not kidding

jeffe

jeffeosso-
I might be wrong, but I thought Winchester plated the stainess barrels of pre-64's with iron then hot blued them.

yellowdog,
i believe it's copper, as I don't believe that an iron/steel to stainless would do anything but have an internal electrosis process going on, resulting in the iron lifting from the stainless in a couple years

jeffe

There are hot bluing types of solutions out there, but they really don't work. They are not nearly as durable as a normal type of blued finish you would find on a regular barrel.

I have seen a couple guns come in that had one of those bake-on coatings on them and they don't look half bad.

-Spencer

Those who have already spoken are right, Black chrome is the hardest/most durable finish you can get for SS. If you want to go for a painted on finish, there are several out there that will give you good results (the ones that bake on are by far the best).

Robar offers their Rogaurd finish which is pretty durable and somewhat approximates a few of the rust blue finishes I've seen. Its pretty tough too as I have a 1911 done with it and wear on the slide rails in minimal after more than 7000+ rounds. They also do blackening of stainless.

Finishes

Jeffe,
I think that you are thinking of Remington for the copper process. I believe that they did a copper over stainless with iron over that. Winchester only used iron over stainless then switched to a blackening process in the late 50's and early 60's.

K guys..
the iron vs copper plating has got my interest up. i'll call winchester today

jeffe

LB, Dave Gentry in Belgrade, MT blues stainless.

jeffeosso
When I posted about Winchester plating stainless with iron then bluing, I was at work and couldn't check where I read that. After checking through several books(every day I get older,I forget where more and more stuff is),I found the book was "Gunsmithing" by Roy Dunlap.
I have a pre 64 m-70 .243 with a stainless barrel, and a small magnet will stick to the plated sides of the barrel but not the crown, which is not plated.

well, winchester was HELPLESS

even the old mean gunny said "i never heard of such a thing as plating a barrel and then bluing"

i am not 100% convinced either way...

some stainless is magnetic, but not barrel steel


weird

jeffe

Gentlemen:

I too remember reading that Winchester iron plated the stainless barrels so they could be blued. I believe the information came from an old Gun Digest.

What I seem to recall is that they copper plated the stainless and then iron plated the copper. I may be mistaken about that but I for sure remember the iron part.

Glenn

That is exactly the process. Their success was in the blueing salts which EPA will notallow now, therefore not done as well now.

quote:

Originally posted by hst:
Gentlemen:

I too remember reading that Winchester iron plated the stainless barrels so they could be blued. I believe the information came from an old Gun Digest.

What I seem to recall is that they copper plated the stainless and then iron plated the copper. I may be mistaken about that but I for sure remember the iron part.

Glenn

I have a 1961 (I think) Rem. 700 in 7mm Rem., anyway it was one of the first years production when they introduced the cartridge.

The barrel is a nice blue, same as the receiver, and is stamped "Stainless Steel".

Must be a way to do it.

Recoil Rob: I also have 7mm Mag 700 with a blued stainless barrel..., a '62 model I think. I inherited the gun about 10 years ago with a couple of small rust spots so knowing that stainless could not be blued, I called Remington to ask what was the deal. I was told that the barrel was copper coated (plated? whatever?) and then a blued finish was applied. Remington no longer did the process at that time so they recommended me to Spradlin's for their refinishing process.

Some smiths still blue SS and its very acceptable or teflon it...Black chorme is the next best thing to s--t IMO...It looks like licorce and when it wears you have all this copper showing...Not for me...

Guys

What is Ruger's "target gray" stainless steel finish?

How durable is it?