quote:

Originally posted by thirdbite:
Don't know if this is correct or not but will share what I found some time ago on the internet. Use at your own risk.

"Niter-bluing uses nothing except potassium nitrate for its active ingredient, and potassium nitrate in a suitably pure form is as far away as the local hardware store, nursery supply shop or home improvement mart! It's called stump-remover, and it sells for about two dollars per one pound bottle of powdered potassium nitrate! For my purposes, a simple standard sheet-metal bread-pan filled with three pounds of stump-remover creates a bluing tank large enough for many small projects including handgun frames, the actions of many rifles (less barrels of course), and all sorts of small firearms component parts that benefit from bluing. Too, the three pounds of potassium nitrate in the bread pan is just about the right quantity of material when it expands and bubbles up when being heated to a liquid. Add no liquid of any kind to the potassium nitrate! The crystals will melt down into a liquid with heat alone, DO NOT ADD ANYTHING ELSE!


A Coleman stove or propane burner is perfect for heating and maintaining the temperature for our homemade bluing tank.

Upon removal quench the newly blued parts into a suitably large container filled with common motor oil. This oil quench does a couple of things, first it stops the bluing process and kills the bluing salts, second, while the pores of the metal are open and expanded from the heat of the bluing solution, the oil penetrates into the pores and creates a deep, protective layer on the newly blued steel that will last for many, many years."

quote:

Originally posted by thirdbite:
I don't remember where I got that reference. Let us know how it turns out.

quote:

After bluing all necessary gun parts, simply turn off the heat source under your bluing pan, and allow the potassium nitrate to cool of its own accord, and it will congeal and harden into a solid white mass. Cover the container with aluminum foil, and store away until the next time there is a project that needs blued parts, then it’s a simple matter to once again heat up the bread pan full of bluing salts, get them in a liquid state and get the job done. Saved in the manner described here, your bluing salts and improvised bluing tank will last years, and years and years! If kept from moisture, the pan shouldn’t rust out, and the bluing salts simply don’t wear out from occasional use. So, for six bucks worth of stump remover and a fifty-cent thrift-store bread-pan a person has a lifetime of small parts bluing capability.

quote:

Originally posted by 1 Shot Hunter:
Cool... And don't leave this part out:

quote:

After bluing all necessary gun parts, simply turn off the heat source under your bluing pan, and allow the potassium nitrate to cool of its own accord, and it will congeal and harden into a solid white mass. Cover the container with aluminum foil, and store away until the next time there is a project that needs blued parts, then it’s a simple matter to once again heat up the bread pan full of bluing salts, get them in a liquid state and get the job done. Saved in the manner described here, your bluing salts and improvised bluing tank will last years, and years and years! If kept from moisture, the pan shouldn’t rust out, and the bluing salts simply don’t wear out from occasional use. So, for six bucks worth of stump remover and a fifty-cent thrift-store bread-pan a person has a lifetime of small parts bluing capability.

This really does sound too good to be true!!!

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Originally posted by wildcat junkie:

quote:

Originally posted by 1 Shot Hunter:
Cool... And don't leave this part out:

quote:

After bluing all necessary gun parts, simply turn off the heat source under your bluing pan, and allow the potassium nitrate to cool of its own accord, and it will congeal and harden into a solid white mass. Cover the container with aluminum foil, and store away until the next time there is a project that needs blued parts, then it’s a simple matter to once again heat up the bread pan full of bluing salts, get them in a liquid state and get the job done. Saved in the manner described here, your bluing salts and improvised bluing tank will last years, and years and years! If kept from moisture, the pan shouldn’t rust out, and the bluing salts simply don’t wear out from occasional use. So, for six bucks worth of stump remover and a fifty-cent thrift-store bread-pan a person has a lifetime of small parts bluing capability.

This really does sound too good to be true!!!

For a $6 imvestment & some of my time I think I'll give it a try.

458AR & 500AR owner (yes it is done )
12GFH in the pipeline(but not a real one, just a "mini one"!!
The single shot on fine and beautiful lines built by a master craftsman is indeed a gentleman's piece...
Colonel Townsend Whelen

quote:

Originally posted by 1 Shot Hunter:
DO NOT buy Bonida Stump-Out. It DOES NOT contain potassium nitrate!

I just picked some up at Home Depot (the only brand they had) and there was nothing about the contents on the label. Had to get home and check on the internet. Damn! I always seem to have to learn the hard way...

quote:

Originally posted by montea6b:
This is a great thread! Questions: how critical is the temperature? Will a lower temperature just take longer? I have a small old Oster deep fat fryer with wire basket for deep frying, think this would work?

No, I don't think so. From what I have gathered from this thread & other sources is that the color is actually the tempering color that the metal takes on. Lower/higher temperatures would yield a different color than the "peacock blue".

& no I don't think your "fryer" would reach the requisite 600-650 degrees F.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 1 Shot Hunter:
DO NOT buy Bonida Stump-Out. It DOES NOT contain potassium nitrate!

I just picked some up at Home Depot (the only brand they had) and there was nothing about the contents on the label. Had to get home and check on the internet. Damn! I always seem to have to learn the hard way...