will 80-grit glass beading produce an acceptable finish for rust bluing, or is it too coarse? I have a savage 99 that I have finished with with fine emery cloth, but I would like to make the metal finish as uniform as possible before the bluing. I have an unopened box of 80-grit beads, but I don't want to change the sand out of my cabinet and open the box of beads if 80-grit is too coarse.

also - how much of the inside of the receiver does one rust blue? Some of the inner contours are tricky to reach.

Thanks all, this is my first rust blue job.

I use 240 grit aluminum oxide as my prep for rust bluing. Try a test piece of steel and see how it blues with your 80 grit. I have never used anything that coarse so I dont know how it will work. Seems a bit aggressive.

If you run a high air pressure and have used the beads a while, then they will be broken down and finer. They will give you an even finish on the steel that looks good with a rust blue finish. People will tell you it won't work and will make the metal look like a golf ball, but it does on #1 and desn't on #B.

I just saw where this is your first rust blue job. Make you up a test piece of steel and mask off sections and give it different degrees of metal prep. Put about 6 coats of blue on it and see which one you like the best.

Changing the amount of air pressure makes a big difference. I can run as low as 20 psi and 80 grit will give a pretty nice finish, of course it depends what you're looking for.

80 grit should work just fine, but blast a piece of scrap first so you don't end up having to polish again.

thanks all. I will try the 80 grit at lower pressure on some scrap first.

The only time I bead blast is to remove gunk and old rust...then I use the finest glass bead at about 70 PSI..this is PLENTY coarse...rust blue will etch a bit all by itself. I doesn;t need any help with something as coarse as 80 grit...are you trying to cover up pitting? If so, that will be an excersize in futility

I agree with Duane. Do not beadblast the action. I finish with 240 grit paper and some green scotchbrite.Use some WD-40 with the scotchbrite and make your strokes even from end to end. This works very well with Belgian Bluing. I would not be too conderned about the insides of the action that are not visable.

there is a little pitting that did not finish out, I thought maybe it might be minimized. what I was after, though, was a uniform finish. I like the very uniform finish I get with al ox before parkerizing, so I was interested in getting a uniform finish for rust bluing too. bead blasting is also an easy way to clean the irregular surfaces in the reciver.

I will just scuff the thing uniformly with sone 240-grit. thanks agin for all the help.