I hear yes and no. What's the skinny. Didn't Rem make blued satinless barresl in the 60s. Not sure just a wag

I don’t believe that stainless steel responds to any traditional bluing process. If I recall, Remington and some others “tinned“ stainless barrels with a coating that was then blued but it wasn’t the actual stainless steel that was taking the color.

Rick, answered it right, Rem and Win both did SS barrels in blue. I thought that they coated them in nickel and then blued.
I;m sure that there are sources out there that can do the same process today.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmyd223:
Rick, answered it right, Rem and Win both did SS barrels in blue. I thought that they coated them in nickel and then blued.
I;m sure that there are sources out there that can do the same process today.

I used the term “Tinned†only as an idiots (me not anyone else) way of describing a process not a material.

I hear ya Rick and I am not real sure it was nickel. Shows how much we know

We used to hot blue stainless with a caustic product from Brownell's. No iron plating needed.

It had an addition step of pickling the metal in a mild acid bath.

I haven't done hot bluing in 20 yrs. so I don't know if they still carry the product.

Good luck...Roger

There used to be a guy by the name of Korzniek (or something like that) that advertized in Rifle Magazine that he did Stainless Steel Bluing.

Brownells sells their Oxynate #84 for bluing stainless steel, but from what I’ve heard it is a really involved process with lots of trial and error and if the receiver is CM you have to first blue everything in the #84 then switch to the #7 and blue just the receiver...and then hope and pray that it all matches when your done.

Yes, SS can be blued. We use George Roghaar, 'Firearm Refinishing & Restoration'. Here is his website, http://www.gunblue.homestead.com/Stainless.html

quote:

Originally posted by Scrollcutter:
We used to hot blue stainless with a caustic product from Brownell's. No iron plating needed.

It had an addition step of pickling the metal in a mild acid bath.

I haven't done hot bluing in 20 yrs. so I don't know if they still carry the product.

Good luck...Roger

Roger nailed it.....the guns were iron (ferrous) plated and then blued.

I have a first year Rem 70 in 7mm Rem with a blued stainless barrel.

What's the point of bluing a stainless barrel anyway? I assume you want a stainless barrel simply for the the fact it's more rust resisitant. But if you coat it with a ferrous metal which is apt to rust, just so you can blue it to prevent the ferrous from rusting, why not just go with a regular blued barrel in the first place?

What am I missing?

The iron plating I was refering to was done by Winchester and perhaps Remington so they could blue stainless barrels. At the time they were doing this there wasn't any bluing available for stainless. I don't think that there was a hot blue available, period. The shooting public wouldn't have gone for a white barrel in those days.

The blue that Brownell's sell doesn't require the iron plating process. It works very much like a regular caustic blue. I don't think it was developed to protect the metal, per se, but to blacken the SS for people who prefer blued guns. As an aside, 416 stainless will rust. Not the same as a carbon steel, but it will rust. In an annealed state it isn't much better than carbon steel.

The reason for the stainless barrels in tose days was barrel life.....such items as the .264 win mag was deemed a barrel burner and the stainless was the (supposed) cure. But folks still wanted the traditional blued look.

IMO a bead blasted stainless barrel is very attractive and bluing is not at all necessary. But others didn't like it so they plated them and blued them.

Winchester stainless barrels pre-date the Model 70 by about 12 years. They started producing them in '25 and offered them to the public "for all models" in 1926.

Manufacture of the stainless was difficult and the material was expensive. They charged $8.00 extra for the stainless. The main drive, at that time, was to reduce the problem of corrosive primers. Winchester started producing Staynless primers about the same time and demand was low for the stainless barrels. They discontinued the stainless barrels in 1930.

BTW, the original metal finish on the barrels was four coats of black Japan varnish. No other treatment for stainless was known at the time...Roger

Blueprinted
you might try www.robarguns.com in Phoenix, AZ he can put just about any finish on a stainless gun you want. He does a lot of work for the military and has a black finish that is impervious to wear.
Rolland

quote:

Originally posted by Rolland:
Blueprinted
you might try www.robarguns.com in Phoenix, AZ he can put just about any finish on a stainless gun you want. He does a lot of work for the military and has a black finish that is impervious to wear.
Rolland

Robar’s finishes, while great (I have several rifles in Rogard), are not bluing and will not match other blued parts of the rifle if this is what he is looking for.

I have a few that have been Falcon coated, very good stuff. I have 3 right now C/M recievers and S/S barrel. That looks great on some rifles but not as good on others. If i wanted extreme protection I would just Falcon coat it. looking to find a way to match up a blued reciever with a S/S barrel with out coating it. Falcon and Robar look great but they do not have the character that a fine blue job has. Just checking all my options before taking a several thousand dollar jump.