I did a quick Tru-oil/cold blue finish on my last project rifle to get out W/it this past hunting season.



Deer season is over & it's time to do a 1st class finish job on my budget Oberndorf Custom 8X57 IS Mauser.

I had some problems W/the Pilkington's spirit stain lifting on the 1st attempt @ finishing the stock. I have stripped the stock & the re-finish is coming along nicely. I have employed Min-Wax mahogony gel stain to add a bit of red to the somewhat bland colored English walnut stock & plan on using Min-Wax Antique Oil Finish as a top coat.

But the subject of this thread is about the blue finish on the buttplate/gripcap.

I plan to rust blue the barrelled action, trigger guard, bolt handle & scope mounts/bases.

I want to nitre blue all the small items such as the bolt release, floorplate, 3-pos safety shroud/lever, floorplate release & all screws. I'm kinda on the fence about the floor plate from an asthetics standpoint.

The checkered steel buttplate & gripcap are the main source of concern, not only from the appearance standpoint, but more importantly, from a durability/practicality point of view.



Is the nitre blue going to hold up as well as a rust blue?

What issues will the checkering bring to the table in either case?

Last, but not least, does anyone have PIX of nitre blue on a checkered steel butplate?

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I am rust bluing mine!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wildcat junkie:
I did a quick Tru-oil/cold blue finish on my last project rifle to get out W/it this past hunting season.



Deer season is over & it's time to do a 1st class finish job on my budget Oberndorf Custom 8X57 IS Mauser.

I had some problems W/the Pilkington's spirit stain lifting on the 1st attempt @ finishing the stock. I have stripped the stock & the re-finish is coming along nicely. I have employed Min-Wax mahogony gel stain to add a bit of red to the somewhat bland colored English walnut stock & plan on using Min-Wax Antique Oil Finish as a top coat.

But the subject of this thread is about the blue finish on the buttplate/gripcap.

I plan to rust blue the barrelled action, trigger guard, bolt handle & scope mounts/bases.

I want to nitre blue all the small items such as the bolt release, floorplate, 3-pos safety shroud/lever, floorplate release & all screws. I'm kinda on the fence about the floor plate from an asthetics standpoint.

The checkered steel buttplate & gripcap are the main source of concern, not only from the appearance standpoint, but more importantly, from a durability/practicality point of view.



Is the nitre blue going to hold up as well as a rust blue?

What issues will the checkering bring to the table in either case?

Last, but not least, does anyone have PIX of nitre blue on a checkered steel butplate?[/QUOTE

Hi,

From what I have experienced, read and done my recommendation is rust blue all the larger parts and leave the niter blue for the screws, bolt release and perhaps the extractor. I think you will have better color continuity if you rust the shroud, bolt handle, scope mounts, grip cap, butt plate and floor plate/trigger guard. IIRC rust bluing is more durable than niter and much more affordable. Clean is the secret ingredient.

Good luck,

Stephen

I forgot a couple of things. Pretty good cold blue job for a down and dirty one. What was the sequence you used with your original stock finish? Did you stain after sealing? I have read of several who use that sequence and I am not understanding why not stain raw wood for in-the-wood color. Nice looking rifle in the Germanic tradition.

S

I think the rust blue will last a lot longer than the nitre blue.

That is what I've found anyway.

GG

The nitre blue may or may not match the rust blue. The checkering on the buttplate and grip cap will rust blue fine. Were it me, I'd rust blue the whole works.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Frith:
I forgot a couple of things. Pretty good cold blue job for a down and dirty one. What was the sequence you used with your original stock finish? Did you stain after sealing? I have read of several who use that sequence and I am not understanding why not stain raw wood for in-the-wood color. Nice looking rifle in the Germanic tradition.

S

I was wanting to get the rifle ready form early black bear season & had limited funds, I used what I had available.

I had some of the Perma Blue Paste cold blue on hand. I like the paste better than any other cold blues I have used. It stays on the metal & seems to allow a more even blue. I keep re-wiping the paste that is clinging to the parts as I move from piece to piece.

After about 5 minutes, I rinse in cold, then hot & buff W/a clean dry cloth. I repeat the process (on the still warm metal) until I get a deep blue color. I then buff W/000 steel wool & repeat as needed. It looks great when you are done, but any parts that get wear such as the bolt handle, buttplate, etc, soon fade.

As for the original stock finish, I had used Birchwood Casey walnut toned filler after staining W/Pilkington's spirit stain. I even re-applied the spirit stain after the fill as the filling process seemed to take out all the red tones that I wanted.

The stock looked pretty good in the picture after the 1st build up coats of Tru-Oil. I started having problems W/the stain lifting as I was putting the finishing coats of Tru-Oil on the stock. When I do the final coats, I rub on a thin coat of oil & follow immediately by buffing W/a soft cloth to achieve very thin finish coats. That's when the stain started to lift. Each successive coat/buff would leave traces of stain on the rag. Eventually the color faded & became uneven.

I think that there must have been some sort of incompatability issue between products from 2 different manufacturers.

This time around, I'm sticking W/a single manufacturer. (Min-Wax) So far I have put 3 coats of gel stain, wiping/buffing after 3 minutes or so then waiting 8+ hours between coats. The color is about where I want it so I'm going to wait 24 hours as per the instructions & begin applying the Antique Oil finish once every 24 hours, again, per the manufacturers instructions.

quote:

Originally posted by GG375:
I think the rust blue will last a lot longer than the nitre blue.

That is what I've found anyway.

GG

That's the kind of info I was looking for.

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:
The nitre blue may or may not match the rust blue. The checkering on the buttplate and grip cap will rust blue fine. Were it me, I'd rust blue the whole works.

I wanted to Nitre blue some of the parts for the contrast. I specifically do not want the colors to "match".

I wanted the scope bases/rings to match the scope/reciever finish as close as possible hence the plan to rust blue those parts.

I will probably rust blue the floorplate, buttplate & gripcap for practcality, but still Nitre blue the bolt shroud, safety lever,(germanic style) floorplate release lever, bolt stop/release, rear swivel stud/boat & all of the screws (even the rear windage screws of the scope base) for the contrast.

I want the bolt body ahead of the rear bridge & extractor to have the "jewel" treatment.

I think the 2 different (contrasting) blueing treatments & jeweling will give some interesting detail to the metal work.

This is not a high dolar custom, but I do want it to have some of the added detailing of a custom "homebuilt" rifle.

I might even spring for some simple but tasteful checkering on the grip only as the original Oberndorf rifles.

The rifle turned out better than expected in the accuracy department so I think it deserves a nice finish.

Sounds like a plan, post pics when you're done, I'd like to see how it turns out.

First of all, congratulations on the tasteful start to a nice custom rifle. The stock is very traditional and I'd let that guide the rest of my style decisions.

I'd definitely have the buttplate and grip cap rust blued. Nitre blue some screws or small parts that won't see much wear (if you just have to have some bling). The Nitre blue is much less durable.

Another option would be to color case harden the grip cap, bottom metal, buttplate, bolt shroud and scope rings. It would add some bling without making the rifle look like a trailer park tart.

For Heaven's sake, please don't jewel the bolt and throw that in the mix with the other bling your considering. You'd be mixing too many different style elements in the project. You might as well bolt on some curb feelers while you're at it.

Quality workmanship speaks softly and speaks for itself.

Good luck with your project.

quote:

Originally posted by ForrestB:

Another option would be to color case harden the grip cap, bottom metal, buttplate, bolt shroud and scope rings. It would add some bling without making the rifle look like a trailer park tart.


Quality workmanship speaks softly and speaks for itself.

Good luck with your project.

Can the color case hardening be done by a "home" gunsmith?

I am of very limited $$$ resources & on a fixed income.

Besides, aside from turning the steps out of the barrel & crowning it, I have done all the work myself and, except for some probabble wrist checkering, was planning on finishing the project myself.

In that case, you've earned even greater kudos on the project. It's important that you concentrate on what you can do really well but, at the same time, not add conflicting style elements just because you can.

Essentially, what you have is a Type A Mauser Sporter. The lower part of the grip is kind of funky but that doesn't bother me too much. Look over a genuine Type A sporter in person or look at good photos on the internet. They are not flashy at all; yet to this day, set a high standard for rifle design and style.

Look at an original rifle and ask yourself, "How much of this could I do myself?" If all you do is what you can do well and resist the temptation to add other elements 'just because you can', then you'll have a fine rifle.

Think in terms of mens' clothing. If you were a top notch tailor, would you sew a high quality traditional suit for yourself or would you sew a flashy pimp suit and add some sequins just so folks would know you didn't buy it at a store?

quote:

Originally posted by ForrestB:

Essentially, what you have is a Type A Mauser Sporter. The lower part of the grip is kind of funky but that doesn't bother me too much. Look over a genuine Type A sporter in person or look at good photos on the internet. They are not flashy at all; yet to this day, set a high standard for rifle design and style.

Look at an original rifle and ask yourself, "How much of this could I do myself?" If all you do is what you can do well and resist the temptation to add other elements 'just because you can', then you'll have a fine rifle.

Think in terms of mens' clothing. If you were a top notch tailor, would you sew a high quality traditional suit for yourself or would you sew a flashy pimp suit and add some sequins just so folks would know you didn't buy it at a store?

I take it from this last post that the color case haedening is not something easily accompished (well) by the "home" gunsmith even if he is pretty handy & inventive.

Since I currently have 4 M98s (2 VZ500 & 2 M98K) currently in the works, any modest investment in tools/materials would not be cost prohibitive as the expense can be amortized over these & I'm sure, future projects. I have a large un-atatched shop to work in. If I spend as much in tools materials as it would cost for a 1-time farmed out project, I feel that I am ahead of the game as I would then be able to repeat the process on future rifles. Still, if it would be impossible for me to achieve professional results myself, I would forgo the expense & look for alternatives.

I think I will heed (some of) your advice from both posts & rust blue all but the floorplate release lever, safety lever, bolt release/stop & various screws.

I was not particularly looking to add "bling" as much as some detail to add interest.


If I do not like the results, I can always easily change the finish on such small, easily removeable parts. I can also periodically re-finish (small) parts as the finish wears as long as I get a few hunting seasons out of the original finish.

As far as adhering strickly to the "Type A" pattern?

The gun has no sights & the comb is high & straight for optic sight use only & the butterknife bolt handle has been cut, welded & re-contoured to allow very low scope mounting.

Also, some inadvertant varience (to the original type) occured when I got a bit too exuberant removing material from the grip area & the (as purchased) beginning I. D. of the barrel band swivel stud resulted in the swivel atatchment ending up a bit closer to the fore-end than desired after tapering the inside.

I would like to think of this rifle as a modern gun influenced by the pre-war Oberndorf style.

That being said, I do not want to vary far from the original style other than where function out-weighs form.

Thank you for your input, it is greatly appreciated.