Ladies and Gentlemen:

I will be building some custom 1898 Mausers for myself later this year.

I would like to restore the original nitre blue colors on the ejector box and screw, trigger and action screws. Has anyone used the Brownells NitreBlue Bluing Salts? How well does it work in re-producing that Mauser blue factory color?

Is there some other process that works better?

Lastly, will I have to re-temper these parts to restore them to original hardness?

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

I have a can of the stuff around somewhere..used it a couple times works OK, gotta be careful of little bubbles that form and will leave a white spot.

This is really a form of heat bluing...or with lower temps you can straw, purple, etc.

If you don't go above the blue, you will not damage the temper

You might want to take a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM_Z1Tax2k0

I have done a couple of butt plates, trigger gaurds and screws. They turned out real well considering I just used a Coleman stove and saltpeter stump remover from the Farm Co-op. The book I read on Mausers has a temperature chart that tells what temps give what colors. I don't have it here, lent it to a friend who is finishing a Mauser now. It seems from memory that the temperature ranges for each color are quite narrow so a good thermometer would be a must. DW

Gentlemen:

Thank you for your advice and assistance.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis