What speaks French has two thumbs, a nice shiney blue black rifle,a big cheesy grin and £200+ he didnt spend on having someone else do the bluing/refinishing?!
Moi!!
[Whilst pointing at oneself with said thumbs]
had a small disaster, two out of three kettle elements turned out to be dead and the one that did work I managed to smash whilst manhandling the workmate.
unperturbed I fired up various camping stoves and blow torches and heated the tubes directly on the outside.
I only had barrel, bolt and trigger guard left to do as everything small went in the pan I did the small bits in.
It came to the boil quite quickly and with some practice I could keep the rolling boil going with the hand held blow torch up the side.
Only catch with vertical boilers....they work so well you better be paying attention as they can boil over in a flash!
Anyway, degreased, boiled, brought up to temp I did the little bits first (on the basis I didnt have the balls to mess up the barrel first!)
school boy error I forgot to degrease the bolt and it came out with my finger prints blacked into it!
trigger guard was fine.
On to the barrel while I sanded down the bolt...again!
Barrel given one more quick once over with 2500 grit and soap, boiled and brought up to temperature.
not sure exactly how long I cooked it for, probably a good 20 mins, kept checking progress for colour
Once out if the hot caustic I rinsed with boiling water straight from the kettle, dipped in the "water only" boiling tube for a quick further rinse then gave it a good hosing with WD40.
I then put the bolt back in.
It has come out a bit of a unusual colour but I actually love it. Its a sort of browny black with blues and greens!
It has all the iridescent hues that temperature blueing gives its just not as even as I would have liked.
May polish it in parts and leave the hues in the main.
All in all I am 'kin delighted.
Very cheap rifle now looks like new (but not too new) for probably £50-60 outlay in total (chemicals, £15 on redundant kettles! and a new butt pad)
the results:
(Pictures were tricky and don't really do it justice IMO)
bolt release refitted:
have this evening to try and remember where all the bits of the action go and refit to the furniture.
cant wait to see if it shoots!
haven't fired the bloody thing yet!
,,so I think I'll have to bring it all indoors for a photo shoot.
