I have a unique problem caused by my own negligence and am not clear what I should do now.

Last weekend, I was rust bluing a couple of barreled actions in a PVC pipe. I have a fish fryer and a container of water below the PVC pipe and the steam enters the pipe. This was my third pass on each barreled action. I steam them for ten minutes each.

The first barreled action steamed fine, but when I put the second action in I failed to check the amount of water in the container. Im doing this on my patio

Well I went into the house, somebody called and I got on the phone. I set a ten minute alarm on my phone. When it rang, I went to the patio and the PVC pipe was flaming on both ends. I immediately doused the flame and got the barreled action out of the pipe.

Visually, the barreled action didn’t show anybaffects. I carded it and set it aside. However, each morning, the surface feels rough. Still black, but a rough texture. I re-card it and put some quality synthetic oil on, but the roughness continues to come after about 24 hours. I could strip all the blue off, but my real concern is that I may have heated it to the point that I’ve essentially annealed the barreled-action.

After that long explanation, how do I check. Do I take it to someone that checks for Rockwell hardness and where on barreled-action would I have it measured and how many spots? The bolt works smoothly, so the action isn’t warped.

Thanks for the info. That doesn’t sound good.

It's probably fine. Flaming on both ends does not necessarily equate cooking your metal at 736 degrees. Exactly how much PVC was burning? Barrels are already annealed. Have the bolt checked; if it is ok, then the rest is.

Was the PVC pipe melted/misshapen in the middle? Was it discolored on the outside other than the burning ends? How does the pot holding the water look?

You could also try duplicating the experiment with a new piece of PVC pipe and some 3/4" iron pipe substituting for the barreled action and see what happens when it gets hot enough for both ends to catch on fire, use an IR thermometer.

How does the bore look? Is it scaled? That could be a clue as to how hot it was. You may need to do a wipe down with acetone to remove any combustion contamination and neutralize with baking soda and water. Re-oil and see if it still gets grainy.

Good advice, guys. I appreciate it.

Bobster, I was using your product. I really like Rust Blue. It has produced great results on a number of rifles. This was strictly my own negligence.

I have oiled the rifle a number of times. After oiling, it’s looks shiny and black. It feels smooth. 24 hours later, it has become a dull black and when I run my hand along the barrel, I have some black residue on my hand. The bore looks fine.

Bobster, I will try the baking soda and report back

Sounds like it's just aggressive 'after rust'. Probably caused by the smoke and soot of the PVC plastic burning. Great rusting agent.

If you can't get it to stop with the normal tricks, I'd go ahead and strip the bluing with a chemical strip to make sure every thing is gone and your orig polish is saved.
Then you can go back and rust blue it again.

A pain, but not as much as if the after rust is allowed to sit and work on the surface while you try and figure out how to make it stop.
In the mean time it pits the polished surfaces.
Then you have to strip it anyway AND re-polish and reblue. That would be a pain.

I wouldn't worry about the bbl's action being heated so hot as to anneal it.
It would have had to be in there for quite a time to have gained the same temp as the flame temp of the burning PVC.
Things just don't heat up that quick.
But if you want to check hardness, the recv'r ring would be the place to check and compare to ??.
The back end of the action can be made out of lead for all it matters,,except the bolt safety lug notch if there is one.

Thanks for the advice. Took Bobster’s advice and used 0000 steel wool with baking soda and water and scrubbed. Put oil on afterwards. This morning everything is smooth. No graininess. The bore looks clear and bright, but didn’t use the baking soda on the bore anyway. Had just ran an oily patch down.

Well, I guess I will shoot it. That first shot might come with a flinch. Haha, maybe I should put in my motorcycle helmet and roust up a flak jacket.
Thanks again for the assistance.

Schrodinger -

According to Googly moogly below (monomer = vinyl chloride), the brief acid exposure caused minor surface erosion. Glad you caught it early.

This monomer is used in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production, and its burning produces additional toxins such as hydrochloric acid and lethal phosgene, known as a notorious chemical weapon during World War I [2].Mar 1, 2023

quote:

Well, I guess I will shoot it. That first shot might come with a flinch. Haha, maybe I should put in my motorcycle helmet and roust up a flak jacket.

I prefer a tire and long string.

At least for the first few.