Classic Rifle Blueing ( Reblueing?)

lambic

Well-Known Member
Gents

I am about to purchase a 30 year old rifle where the blueing has started to bloom.

It is mechanically sound, I have bought a left handed stock of the genre and everything is looking good.

However at some point I will need to get the barrel and action blued/reblued , before it can sit happily in my house.

The Airgun guys recommend a very nice guy called Colin from near Manchester, however I was wondering if there's are any blueing experts up here in the heart of hunting land.

I am surprised my googling showed zero hits......so many rifles up here and serious weather....?

Cheers
 
There a lot of places offering hot caustic bluing (essentially black sometimes with a tinge of blue or brown depending on mix)
fewer places do traditional rust bluing, mainly due to the huge cost difference and time involved

what are you after?
 
Bewsher

To be honest I am not sure what I need, it is a Mk 1 Theoben Eliminator FAC air rifle. I am guessing traditional?

I will be going to PRS and MacLeods on Friday, so will ask around.
 
I use traditional slow rust blueing looks much nicer but takes longer therefore costs more. I suspect your gun was hot blacked at the factory.
 
Thanks WW. Just got a price from Andy Coull - approximately twice that of Colin from Manchester Airguns. Trying to find out if it is slow rust blueing or hot dip. Any advice ?
 
I'm not sure if PKL is still offering his blueing services, but they were the best re-blueing jobs we ever saw.

Raker Ltd
 
Thanks WW. Just got a price from Andy Coull - approximately twice that of Colin from Manchester Airguns. Trying to find out if it is slow rust blueing or hot dip. Any advice ?

twice the price would be expected if not higher
Andy is not cheap but very good

get it hot blued
its a machine cut air gun at the end of the day
I would be surprised if the material would show the extra effort unless it was completely refinished and smoothed throughout
 
Traditional as it may be, I'd still recommend Cerakote. Hard wearing and colour/finish can be adapted to meet requirements - and will be cost effective.
 
Hot bluing is very good, and will last for most of a century, if cared for. The key, as in all finishes, is in the preparation, like the removal of old bluing, oils, and rust, and gently hand polishing where necessary. Rust bluing is still used on some shotgun refinishing because of not wanting to fully disassemble the extractor mechanisms in double barrels, and because of the solder being degraded by the hot bath. It is a multi-step process of days of hanging the steel in the right humidity chamber and carding off the oxidation.

Some rifles, to my eye, look good even when turning plum colored, so long as the bluing is not worn through in spots. I have a sporting rifle built in the 1920s on a 1903 Springfield that is like that, and want to keep it that way. But another one, a later 1903A3, I polished and blued to a dark black, like a Winchester Model 70 SuperGrade, to match up to the glossy Leupold rings and 6x scope on it.

lambic, do you mind telling us what kind of rifle this is you are restoring?
 
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Southern. The rifle is a Theoben Eliminator, think they are called Berman something or other over the pond. Not really a real rifle, but a bit nostalgic for some.
 
Beeman Crow Magnum.
Beeman is a big supplier of all sorts of airguns and supplies.
 
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Slow rust bluing is the best finish and it can be doen by the home enthusiast - just needs a little research and effort. Hot bluing will certainly perform but slow rust will elevate the rifle. No real right or wrong answer.
 
Slow rust bluing is the best finish and it can be doen by the home enthusiast - just needs a little research and effort. Hot bluing will certainly perform but slow rust will elevate the rifle. No real right or wrong answer.

I blued guns for 5 years and found that even with good instruction a really good blue job still took a while to perfect.
The slow rust method to do as well as or better than hot salts would in my experience take a good while and a number of guns to get right. Steels aint steels, so some worked really well and others not so well. Knowing which was which helped.
I did a 'Belgian' blue finish (accelerated rust blue) on double barrelled shotguns but never quite managed the depth of blueing that my hot salts could achieve.
 
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