Is there a coating you would recommend that can be applied to a stainless barrel to make it look blued?

Stainless "bluing"

If you want to send it out, I recommend H&M http://blacknitride.com/, they treated a ss barrel of mine recently, turned out well. If you are doing it yourselft, what Mr. Kobe said.

Depends on how much you want to spend. We can make stainless steel black from $50 to $250.

Gentlemen, thanks for the information. The barrel is going on a Hauck. As stainless it will not be 'proper' but the gophers, next spring, will not mind. I might exercise the option after that.

I ordered a chrome moly barrel from a well known maker...Had pl;enty hours in contouring, then adding rear sight base, barerel band swivel and banded ramp.

Made the stock, had some engraving done, finally the last stage: Bluing! Ah shit ....the damn barrel was stainless!

Dave Thomas saved the day...He did a two step process with caustic blue to make the accesories black, then blackened the barrel it self.

It turned out so well that the barrel matched up to the color and texture of the rust blued action.

Pure magic..so yes stainless can easily be blackened

Black Electrical tape
It makes the barrels on my stainless rifles look exactly like the barrels on my blued steel rifles !

i have gotten "old" enough to appreciate stainless guns .. and high temp engine paint / BBQ paint will work for longer than you might think

Actually, that is true. Do not fall for the high dollar paint jobs that some try to pawn off as some soft of special coating. The bake on types are only marginally tougher. Not $300 tougher.
It's all paint. It will scratch when you drop it in the rocks.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Actually, that is true. Do not fall for the high dollar paint jobs that some try to pawn off as some soft of special coating. The bake on types are only marginally tougher. Not $300 tougher.
It's all paint. It will scratch when you drop it in the rocks.

Show me some bluing that wont scratch when you drop your rifle in the rocks?

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
Black Electrical tape
It makes the barrels on my stainless rifles look exactly like the barrels on my blued steel rifles !

If you really want to use tape on your barrel, I recommend you use Silicone tape; far better than regular electrical tape and will out last you. Standard electrical tape, with adhesive, will deteriorate faster than you think, especially when it gets hot. Silicone tape only sticks to itself and is what I use for my MV restoration, wiring harnesses.
As for dropping rifles into the rocks, I was only referring to coatings, not bluing, which is not a coating. It is a chemical change to the steel.
Actually the silicone tape would protect it best.
You could also spray it with rubberized undercoating; that would definitely protect it. Spray the whole rifle.

I'm tempted occasionally to have one powder coated, with a hammered copper finish. Would definitely be different.

Here is one coated in dried blood. It only takes imagination. Owner killed a wild boar with it last week.

No offence Tom-----But that is one ugly rifle!

Hip

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
i have gotten "old" enough to appreciate stainless guns .. and high temp engine paint / BBQ paint will work for longer than you might think

High temp Gas Grill paint is great and CHEAP too.

It's a Zombie rifle. The owner has not had any problems with Zombies on his property since he got it.
Yes, engine and grill paint work well, but don't think you are actually going to get a barrel hot enough to cure it. It works well enough as is.

I have painted a number of rifles and the results were always good. The only problem that I have had was bore solvent dripping from the muzzle removes it from the underside of the bbl. Easy to touch up though!
I think the first gun was an old H&R break open shotgun 16 ga. that I use to shoot rats at the dump at night.

Hip

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
It's a Zombie rifle. The owner has not had any problems with Zombies on his property since he got it.

Did he have lots of zombie trouble before?

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
It's a Zombie rifle. The owner has not had any problems with Zombies on his property since he got it.
Yes, engine and grill paint work well, but don't think you are actually going to get a barrel hot enough to cure it. It works well enough as is.

I told the wife the same thing about elephants in the garden when I brought my first big bore.

She said we don't have any elephants in the garden.

I said see it is working.

quote:

Originally posted by Hipshoot:
No offence Tom-----But that is one ugly rifle!

Hip

In the words of architect Louis Sullivan, "form ever follows function ".