I have an old shotgun that is in bad need of rebluing and I was thinking about trying to rust blue it myself. Out of the three: Pilkington's, Dicropan, and Express blue, which gives the better finish and which of the three is the least complicated to use? Not worried about length of time, more about minimizing how much other crap I would have to buy as the gun isn't worth much money wise, but I can shoot it better than any of my other shotguns.

Thanks,

Lance

quote:

Originally posted by Lfaler:
I have an old shotgun that is in bad need of rebluing and I was thinking about trying to rust blue it myself. Out of the three: Pilkington's, Dicropan, and Express blue, which gives the better finish and which of the three is the least complicated to use? Not worried about length of time, more about minimizing how much other crap I would have to buy as the gun isn't worth much money wise, but I can shoot it better than any of my other shotguns.

Thanks,

Lance

If you do a search this question was asked a few weeks ago, and Chic Worthing and another guy mentioned a solution that use and swore by. Sorry, but don’t recall the name or where to get it...but I don’t believe it was any of the ones you mentioned.

quote:

Originally posted by Lfaler:
I have an old shotgun that is in bad need of rebluing and I was thinking about trying to rust blue it myself. Out of the three: Pilkington's, Dicropan, and Express blue, which gives the better finish and which of the three is the least complicated to use? Not worried about length of time, more about minimizing how much other crap I would have to buy as the gun isn't worth much money wise, but I can shoot it better than any of my other shotguns.

Thanks,

Lance

Lance,

Of the choices you've mentioned, I've used Dicropan and Express Blue.

Dicropan T4 is a cold blue and not a rust blue, Mark Lee's Express Blue is a good blue to start with because it is pretty fast acting and you will learn faster than some of the other rust blue recipes. It gives a nice finish, but remember the most important chemical in rust bluing compounds is elbow grease.

The blue that many of the talented people here use is Gun Goddess, however I have never used it so I can't comment on it.

If you decide to use Dicropan, here is what I do- first use brownells Oxpho-blue which gives one of the most durable finishes, but I don't like it because it is too light for my tastes. After you've blued it with Oxpho, wash it down and then blue it again with Dicropan. You'll get a very nice looking finish that is also extremely durable, the best of both worlds this way.

Found it!

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tp.../958109224#958109224

Thanks Rick,

I did a search prior to the post, but I either didn't go back far enough or didn't hit the key words as I hadn't found that thread.

quote:

Originally posted by Lfaler:
Thanks Rick,

I did a search prior to the post, but I either didn't go back far enough or didn't hit the key words as I hadn't found that thread.

I had the same problem and couldn’t find it either until I remembered the name of the stuff. I entered that and there it was.

Both customstox and scrollcutter have allot of rust bluing experience and I would trust their judgement on this subject.

I tried the Plinktons stuff on some practice parts and it worked good for me...but I didn’t really have anything to compare it to since I hadn’t done any rust bluing before.

Gun Goddess

Lfaler, Hi.
I use a rust blue solution That is easy to make and simple to use. I mixed up a pint of it 10 years ago, have blued dozens of barrels ect, and have used about 2oz. It gives a lovely deep soft blue/black finish that is very durable.
If anybody wants the recipe let me know and I will email it to them.
Cheers
Tony

afro408, sent you a PM