Has it ever been done? I got to thinkin' about that while reading the Bluing thread. Might look cool on some radical varmint gun.

A client sent me an old custom rifle of his so I could copy dimensions and transfer them to a stock on a rifle he was having me build him. The old rifle-custom from the early 70's-had jeweling on the magazine floorplate, which was then hot blued. It looks OK I guess. Not really my thing, but I don't think it looks tackey or anything like that. Would not want a whole rifle done that way, but a small amount was not bad.

Have a custom Savage 99 that needs restoration after being damaged under a leaky ceiling, discussed this with Steve Nelson, he just early this month jeweled and blued a trial steel plate about 1x2", the rust blue almost completely hid the whorls so we abandoned the idea.

It's done a lot. I think there are even some factory rifles that have the bolt jeweled and then blued. The down side is that as the bolt wears, a lot of the bluing will rub off leaving you with a tacky looking bolt. That's why you'll find most bolts polished.

Ray

Used to jewel the bolt, follower and the SPRING in the bolt stop on Mausers. Made the mistake once in bluing the bolt stop with the spring in it. It actually looked pretty good. Offered to remove the spring and repolish and jewel but the guy I built it for said he liked it . Only jeweling I've ever seen blued.

Occasionally one will come through the shop like that. Usually as a result of some amatuer who doesn't know how to prep a bolt, or, how to protect the original jeweling from the bluing process. Too me it looks cheap and like someone was trying to hide something. I don't know... It almost looks as cheap as the way Remington jewels their bolts over a matte finish.