There is an absolutely great thread going on here with Bluing.

I am wondering if some of those same people might contribute as to specifically what they do for their final polishing steps prior to doing their bluing, i.e. what equipment and supplies are used, and what methods are used.

Thank you.

Blue

Please realize that I'm a jr. at bluing but so far I had my best results by prepping metal to 320 with 3m Stickit roll tape. Glass beading, and then polishing with grey scotchbrite. I carded with an ultra soft stainless wheel and brushes. I tried one directly after beading and had microscopic pits on a cast Classic M-70 action.
Critiques of this method by some of our more distinquished posters would be appreciated......DJ

BTT

I was hoping for some more responses to this thread as it is an area I need to work on. Anyone got anything to add please????

Do you have a part # for the grey ScotchBrite?

I agree. Where are System98 and SDH and Others when you need them!!!

I use paper, and polish to at least 400 grit and often to 800 or more. Why? 'cause.... Not sure that anything is gained after 600, but it makes me feel better.

I lube the paper with wd40 rather than water.

While anyone, even I, can do a decent job of polishing a barrel, esp. an octagon barrel, polishing an action with inside corners and concave curvves is not so easy to my way of thinking, esp, when the curves and corners are more easily polished orthoganally to the bore axis. I have a devil of a time with things that need to be polished INTO the corners.

Brent

I wonder if System98 and others are busy sometimes working for paying customers. In a fulltime shop there isn't always the time to drop everything and marry yourself to the blue screen.

Anyway, we polish the legend rifles to 280-320,then they are bead blasted, then wire wheeled with some oil.

Bart

Ralphie

I could be wrong, but I would dare to say that there might be a bit of a quid pro quo going on here. I have a feeling that those gunmakers who participate on this forum in turn realize a bit of business from those who frequent this forum.

Blue

Earnest would be polishers, Trigger guard and Chuck made the correct call.. Each part requires a different mode of attack. What is worse is that for my methods of polishing I use powered wheels as much as possible. Mostly medium, and medium hard felt wheels. When I did a considerable ammount of commercial bluing I had 3 powered units running at the same time. Each unit had at least one shaped wheel for radiused corners, some skived on an angle. One unit was a simple ball bearing arbor powered by a separate motor and capable of variable arbor speed. This employed the wheels that had been worn down to where the diameter was too small to be usable on converted bench grinders. Peripheral speed dictates the cutting ability of the abrasive employed. This particular unit usually ran at around 4500 RPM.

Back around 60 years ago most products to include a lot of hand tools were finished by real artists employing powered wheels. The success of the company depended upon these people. They did not learn their trade over night. They were usually paid more per part or figured by the hour than the company toolmakers and shift foremen. Most of the wheels and wheel materials were unavailable after WW II. To get the results they achieved on those fine old pre WW II
guns these wheels could be made of Male bull neck Walrus leather, Wood of various species, Felt of various densities and hardness and for blending, very high thread count stitched and sometimes glued so called muslin ( cotton) wheels and also sailcloth canvas. The canvas and "muslin" wheels were made of layered sheets pressed tightly, then sewed together in various widths. About the only stitched,layered, wheel worthwhile to use and which would match those old wheels would be made of industrial silk. Finer the weave finer the finish using 450 grit compound.
No, the compound I use is not available from the famous purveyor of gunsmith supplies. Silk wheels? So far that isn't something made in PDR China or India. Beyond 450 grit compound the necessary glue binder allows the grit to bunch and cause scratches. For a very fine finish using much finer grit like 600 and 800 I have tried and used the compressed paper fibre wheels sold to knife-makers. The glue? Desperation knows no bounds. I wondered if a drug store material sold for holding loose dentures in place might dry on a wheel and hold grit. It does. I used Boron Carbide lapping powder applied in a small ammount and smoothed on evenly. This also works with wood wheels.

Corners. Like on ribbed barrels. Hand work. I use the same tools I developed for receiver inside polishing. Diamond files. These are followed up with similar tools using "crazy glue"d strips of 320 and 400 grit wet-or-dri silicon carbide on similar 3/16" square pieces of steel that are the handles for the diamond grit "pads". These pads and the silicon carbide strips have sharp corners ,thus unlike abrasive stones tend to maintain or improve the corner meeting place of the 2 surfaces.

About the only worthwhile suggestion I can make to the un-wheeled is to buy a set of those PDR,or Taiwan diamond needle files and see if you are still interested in Gun Polishing for bluing. On the eBay these seem to run about $35 per set. If you do try this do remember that not much pressure is required to get them to cut. Run one across a piece of glass a few times to get an idea of how much pressure to use. You will not acquire the ability to keep the tool flat in the first hour or so of use. Where to try the files? The cocking piece slot in a receiver is a good place. You will do the least harm on the bottom of the slot.

Do avoid the temptation to apply lapping compound to the bolt and simply run it back and forth in the receiver.

Stephen King. Not to worry. This will not be a best seller.

LOL

Damn that was short Tom

you didn't even make Louis LaMour size. Ohh well, gave um just enough to make you answer a lot more questions.

I've been too busy lately to even check in.
As for polishing, We do it all with cloth paper backed by such a variety of blocks, jigs and tools that I could never go through it all. I use stones on occasion, mostly mold makers. I prefer #6 Grobet needle files to Tom's diamond ones. Have #4 & #6 cut in most shapes.
When it comes to machine polishing,Tom is correct, as usual, just check out a pre-war Colt or especially a S&W with a ribbed barrel. If one tries to hand polish one of these, you will begin to see that while surfaces appear to be flat and true, they are not. These were all machine polished by fellows brought up in the trade. Large wheels, lots of different shapes. Lots of experience. this is why I don't advocate anyone machine polishing these days. Fanastic work!

For rust bluing, we hand polish to 320, go over it with 400 to show scratches, back to 320, then finish hand burnishing with maroon and then gray Scotch brite. This burnishing also gets all of the strokes going in the same direction. For case colors, we do a true 400 then sometimes wheel burnish with a worn down carding wheel, .004" wires, 3200rpm. Burnishing was used a lot in the pre-cartridge era up to 1900. It works best with a charcoal blue as it irons down the minute scratches for the brightest appearence. In the old days, burnishing was done with highly polished steel tools. Lynton McKenzie taught me about that. The worn carding wheel helps. Wheel burnishing is not great for rust bluing because it closes the pores.
As for the rust bluing post: 1. Rusting is caused by electrical currents jumping from the high to low spots on the metal surfaces. The finer the polishing, or even better, burnishing, the less likely the rust because the less difference between the highs & lows. 2. No matter how good caustic bluing is for wear resistance, I'll bet rust bluing will out perform for hand sweat or moisture resistance. By the way, I still have a pint of the solution Duane Bolden used to use. He never would tell me what was in it. At the time D'Arcy did his test, Duane told me his solution and techniques were nearly equal for wear resistance. (Darcy, that is spelled WEAR.) It is sooo hot, I never rust for more than two hours, and it took me eight years to use up the first pint.
And by the way, I have several of my own guns I have hunted hard for many years. My Fox shotgun is totally devoid of trigger guard tang rust blueing and is about 50% silver from case color wear. The nitre bluing is the first to go. All done while hunting or shooting in the name of research, and fun!

Interesting that SDH feels the need to correct Mr. Echols spelling while mispelling his name in the same bloody sentence. Go figure. It isn't because he doesn't know how to spell it eigther, as he proves otherwise in the same post.



Chuck

Chuck



It is extremely gracious of these fellows to come to this forum and give us their expertise. I am betting that they know each other quite well from many years of being at shows and conventions. And I am betting that any one of them (including Mr. Echols) probably doesn't take too much offense when his name is misepelled a bit on this forum.



I am very appreciative that we have such very fine and very knowledgeable gentlemen participating, and I suspect that any one of them is very capable of telling somebody else off if need be for any indiscretion against their person.



Blue

No Kidding!



Chuck

Chuck

Thats fine. You can say it all you want. Doesn't mean anyone is going to do it.

Blue

Chuck, Could it ever have occured to you that I was pulling my friend D'Arcy's leg? Nice job of killing a good post!
I'd like to hear some more about others polishing techinques.