Recently purchased a Sako AV with an odd color extractor. Is this the factory extractor with the bluing fading? Or an aftermarket replacement? Thanks!

Pretty common and OEM.

The bluing has turned color overr time e.g. Ruger.

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The bluing has turned color overr time

As I was sitting here I wonder if you boiled it or steamed it like you do rust bluing would it return to a blackish color?

It is a chemical reaction (not the blue wearing off)I've seen a number of action do the same thing.

Actually, it turned that color in the bluing bath; high carbon steel tends to turn reddish. Try bluing an old shotgun with an iron frame and you will see. There are ways to avoid it, but in the case of extractors, they don't care. And yes, some Rugers have a plum color to them, which I like.
Rust bluing won't do that as you are not boiling the steel in 295 degree lye. No, boiling it will not change it's color; different chemical reaction. involved.

Thanks dpcd
A quick first read before I thought the color had "changed". Having never seen one I didn't understand they came that way from the factory. I fully understand the PLUM color and the royal pain it was to deal with. Playing games with temp etc. It would take 3-4 times as long to blue some of them.

Since I'm a retired Petroleum Engineer not a Chemical I won't even begin to say I understand the various chemical reactions.

Have a good one

The extractors are made from a tool steel which is high in vanadium. A lot of receivers are made from that stuff too. It is characterized by the red to purple color they turn in bluing baths. Weatherbys, Rugers, older Sakos and some of the HVAs. It is possible to blue chrome vanadium steel. It just takes higher temps and a longer soak. Shocking it hard several times can also turn it. Some people claim that adding potassium to the bath will blue it. From personal experience I would have to call not really to BS on that. We experimented with it a lot when we did Ruger and Weatherby warranty and it just didn't seem to make a difference. We even went as far as using potassium nitrate instead of sodium nitrate. We couldn't see any difference in the end product or the time it took to blue. I'm no chemist, but the niters seem to be the part of the salts that do the work. Not the stuff that carries the niters in to the bath.

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Some people claim that adding potassium to the bath will blue it. From personal experience I would have to call not really to BS on that.

When I was doing bluing (crap 30 yrs ago now). I was told to add potassium. If it made a difference I don't remember it. Only way I got rid of "most" of the plum was putting the metal in the tank at the bottom end of the temp range the allow the heat to climb and the metal to soak for a LONG time

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Originally posted by ramrod340:

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Some people claim that adding potassium to the bath will blue it. From personal experience I would have to call not really to BS on that.

When I was doing bluing (crap 30 yrs ago now). I was told to add potassium. If it made a difference I don't remember it. Only way I got rid of "most" of the plum was putting the metal in the tank at the bottom end of the temp range the allow the heat to climb and the metal to soak for a LONG time

Same trick here but with shocking. I would toss a bunch of ice in the cold water tank after the bluing tank got up to about 305 degrees. Then I would put the vanadium parts in the cold tank for 5 minutes and then dump them in the bluing tank for 5 minutes. Then back into the cold water. I would hold the bluing tank by adding about 1 cup of water every 5 minutes during this procedure and not cycle it. I had to card almost every time because you get a lot of surface rusting but at some point it would kick over and go black.

I used to use the same tick with old Springfields, Enfields and Winchesters with nickle steel. It was a pain in the butt but it generally would work.

Never tried shocking. But since one of the best days of my life was when I sold my bluing set up. Don't think I'll be shocking in the future either.

That is what I was trying to remember; the ICE trick.
Brownells sells something called Oxynate S which is supposed to eliminate the red color in iron and high carbon and alloy steels.
Oh, since Bobster taught me how to steam/rust blue, I won't use my hot caustic tanks again either.

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IF, I ever got more space and could run the tanks outside in a shipping container on natural gas I would run caustic tanks again.

No more tanks in the shop. Ever ! ! !

No more rust bluing. Ever ! ! !

No more repairing junk. Ever ! ! !

No more warm beer. E V E R ! ! !

Thank You to everyone for the education!

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Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:
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IF, I ever got more space and could run the tanks outside in a shipping container on natural gas I would run caustic tanks again.

No more tanks in the shop. Ever ! ! !

No more rust bluing. Ever ! ! !

No more repairing junk. Ever ! ! !

No more warm beer. E V E R ! ! !

Out back behind the barn. Gravel floor, pallets and horse stall mats. Three open sides for AIR! Fiberglass green house roof. Salts tank is carbon steel, on the right hidden behind one of the hot water tanks. Remainder of tanks are 316 SS. Yes there is a cold water shock tank.

Caustic salts eats concrete, hence all the wood and rubber for the floor.



Hot beer is for boiling corned beef.

Once you have run your tanks in one of those steel, wood floored shipping containers, in the rain, in the snow and you can just hose the floor off with water when you're done and close and lock the 2 big doors you will never go back WoodHunter.

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Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:
Once you have run your tanks in one of those steel, wood floored shipping containers, in the rain, in the snow and you can just hose the floor off with water when you're done and close and lock the 2 big doors you will never go back WoodHunter.

Too hot where I live. Gotta have lots of cross ventilation! The worse thing is those little droplets of air born bluing salts that fall out on sweaty skin.

Snow equals natural cooling!

But I bet you will work up a sweat tending those tanks inside a shipping container, even in the dead of your winter.

The things we gun tinkerers dream up to do. Think I will go fishing, it is much safer.

Time for a corned beef sandwich, the beer is hot.

I've ran them when it's 80+F in the summer, LOTS. The bluing salts sit against the wall right by the door and the boil out is on the outside of that. The cold water tank is generally on the opposing side. In the summer we used to move the cold water tank outside. Just use one of those small cube containers. Once the 2 big doors are open it never really gets hot. In the winter we used to keep the door next to the tanks closed to keep the gas use down a bit. Once it gets to -30F it's to cold even with one door closed. The burners can't keep up with the heat loss and you can't run them with both doors closed or you would be a dead duck.