Nice looking results!! Just a tip for anyone out there: Every time I see one of these blackening videos (not yours) they always use metal channellocks or needle nose pliers to pick up the piece being blackened. Then they say "be careful not to scratch it" Lol. The best way is to use kitchen tongs with silicone ends/tips, with steel handles. Just a recommendation to prevent any scratches and achieve a better result. Hope this helps. Thanks.
You can do the conversion on small parts using a kettle to boil the water and a plastic container to hold everything...works well. For larger items, steaming in a tube works great for conversion.
I used your formula to rust blue a 100 year old broad hatchet. I put on six coats, boiling between coats and carding between coats. It did good. It looks 100 years old, again. I had to hang a new handle in it, which I rubbed down with walnut stain and started coating with linseed oil.
Turned out nice! I like the idea of using stuff you have around the house. Back when I reloaded a lot I used a mixture of water, salt, and vinegar to clean the cases. made the cases look new inside and out.
Nice! I experimented with rust bluing many years ago. It was a lot of fun bluing various tools and experimenting with different acids for various results. That concoction makes a nice black. Pilkington results in a silvery gray like some of the old high end shotguns from England.
This is a very interesting technique and something I would like to try. The punch looks great and I noticed the rust bluing seems to have a more uniform finish to it than the cold bluing. Thanks for sharing this.
I don't remember what my teacher called it in my H.S. metals class, but we were taught to heat the item(in our case, a center punch) with an acetylene torch, then quench it in dirty motor oil multiple times. That was in 1977.
Oil bluing is good for thicker parts, because of the heat involved, rust bluing is recommended for shotgun barrels especially doubles. I think rust bluing is pretty cool, more true to most of my back powder guns periods
Thanks for showing how accessible this process is with easy-to-obtain resources. Also, thanks for explaining the advantages -- better corrosion resistance was a pleasant surprise!
When cleaning, grinding small round parts, I chuck them in a cordless drill and run it in the opposite direction of the belt sander. It almost eliminates flat or uneven spots. It even helps with cleaning up the punch face.
I used this to blue some new screws I got for my air rifle. If doing multiple coats, I found that dipping in acid and then coating with plain H2O2 and salt solution was better than mixing all three together. Acid dipped just for the first coat, all subsequent coats were just peroxide and salt. The acid soak was 50% acetic acid for 10 minutes.
Fantastic. I cannot wait to do this to some pliers. Thank you. Now I have to figure out how to make distilled water and I have to find non iodized salt. Busy busy.
@@357magdad I was kinda joking. I live in Japan so I always have to get my wife to translate my crazy requests. Good timing is called for. Non iodized salt is also called Kosher salt. Love your videos.
WOW man!!! i had an object waiting for me to blue for the past year and i couldn't find an actual cheap recipe. where i live all chemicals and rust bluing products are scarce and expensive. thx you!!!!
Thanks for making and posting this. Well done. I also did a version of this only with an axe head submerged into a mixture of Peroxide & Salt. (can't remember if I use Vinegar). heated the mixture in Stainless frypan on BBQ, submerged axe for a maybe 10 or so minutes. Took it out and ran cold tap water over it. Did this several times until entire axe head turned black. Someday I'll put a handle in it and hang it up. Thanks for your tutorial.
I have a bunch of tools to clean up from years of neglect. I've been just wire wheeling and oiling, but they still don't look great. I think I'll give this a try. It could give them a nice, uniform look so they would appear to belong together instead of just being a bunch of old tools. And extra rust resistance would be just the thing for tools that have already suffered enough rusting.
I've a load of old & antique tools that need refinishing. Some came with parts nickel, others japaning. But there's a load of items that this process will be the perfect finish
Thats super interesting! I use the same recipe for faux rust finish and had never heard you could ad a step for blueing. I cant wait to try it on something :)
I did this with a German Walther PPK/S that I got in bad shape. Took me about 5 or 6 dips to get it dark enough. I'm not sure if it was just so imbedded with oils over 50 years that degreasing didnt work as well, but it finally came out with a classic but very nice finish. I hit it with a denim wheel after to really give it that black chrome look
Before I scrolled down to see the uploader I guessed that Lufkin Comic was going to be another Mark Stansbury upload, that guy's an Uploading Beast! Over 7500 uploads.
To protect my knives I use ferric chloride. No heat necessary. Just clean them thoroughly with warm soapy water and then with alcohol. Paint some Ferric Chloride on to the blade, wait a few minutes, rinse with water, then rise with water and baking soda to neutralize any acids left. Don’t wipe it dry, just pat it dry. Works best in warmer temperatures than on cold days. It still works in the cold but takes longer. You can also warm the Ferric Chloride a bit if you want faster results. Result? A knife or tool that won’t form red rust because you’ve induced a stable black rust to prevent it. Food safe as well. Colors vary from dark grey to near black, steel depending. I’ve done it on many knives, crowbars, and other tools. It lasts and does what it’s supposed to. I learnt this method from etching “Damascus steel” (pattern welded steel).
You don't need to fully submerge parts in boiling water. If you can construct a steam chest and pipe hot steam in, you can do much larger objects. A temporary steam chest can even be a big cardboard box with a hole at the bottom for an old school (no auto shutoff) electric kettle.. It will last long enough to do a whole rifle barrel and receiver and you can just toss it afterwards..
I use brake-kleen for nearly everything around the garage, except for items to be welded, including a couple of firearm components, plus the use of acetone. Recent experiments for my bluing have been greatly improved with use of Denatured Alcohol, instead of the prior mentioned cleaners. My bluing comes out so even and seems to have better saturation of the bluing chemical, and takes less time. I have a darker visible difference in the items blued when using alcohol as compared to acetone or brake-kleen. Thanks to this video, now I have alternate inexpensive materials to use and experiment with.
This is a very nice and informative presentation of a subject that has been shrouded in mystery for years. Your cordless drill will make a good addition to your belt sander for cleaning and round and tapered details. 12 gauge double barrels, not so much. ;-)
Works pretty well. I did a few dozen little hex bits that were lying around from cheap tool sets that randomly materialized in my shed, and a bunch of nail sets and punches including I think the same one you did, if it's starret. Fairly ugly until the 3-in-1 goes on and then it looks right.
I'm pretty sure any number of formulas exist. Years ago, I discovered a variant that uses steel wool as a catalyst. Preheat metal, when up to 180-200F, apply concentrated super blue gently with steel wool. Instant rust on even many high alloy parts up to the "semi stainless". Concentrate superblue or permablue by leaving the tops off till 40-50% of volume is gone. A couple of tricks on cold blue, preheat metal with a heat gun, add a few drops of 10% acetic acid (from amazon). I always mix chems on the work, or in tiny amounts and discard any unused. All of these will RUST blue. Last note, Brownells Oxopho-blue is a blackening rust process, at least if you get the metal above 180f. Do ALL metal shaping and prep prior, Best to take it down to the base metal in the white, but I have done it on top of both rust, and surface voids that would CONVERT, the rust, to blackening, and actually fill some small surface pits. Finish with a very fine carding wheel, looks like a wire brush, NEVER EVER contaminate your carding wheel with stupid stuff like using it as a wire brush, like cleaning auto parts. If you do, toss it, get another also on amazon. Best $20 you will spend. I recently did a receiver from a homemade frame ak for a friend. Just heated it with a vidal sassoon hair dryer, oxphoblue, rinse, card and repeat, only 3 times. This thing had a finish that you would swear was airbrushed with a light coat of black paint, and believe it or not, you would swear there was a super lite coat of automotive clearcoat on it! I was a mechanic in a past life, and I know what that would look like! I laid it by my 1915 Mauser brand P08, and you can see clearly how they did it! The finish on the two guns was remarkably close. I cannot believe how much of my life was wasted on cruddy cold blue efforts till I discovered this. Ah, forgot the other trick, heat your blueing solution in a microwave. Since your bottle is likely quite small, and will heat very quick, slow down the microwave heating by putting a cup of water in with the container, separate, of course!
Thank you very much for this rust bluing recipe. I've been looking for a working recipe with easy to obtain ingredients for quite a while. So far all I've found have involved some "exotic" salts which are really hard to obtain here in Sweden. These ingredients I can find in the local grocery shop and pharmacy.
Very interesting. Thank you. I read somewhere that during WW2, the Japanese used urine to make some type of "anti-rust". Their government urged citizens to save their urine for collection. I read the article a very long time ago and have not been able to confirm this since that time. On another matter, instead of brushing the bluing on, I see that a lot of machinists just immerse the part into the bluing and let it stay in the solution for a bit. They do use commercial bluing and seem to get a nicer job then I can get using brushes, cotton swabs and etc. I haven't tried this yet, but plan to. Thanks again!
I once got a very interesting patina on bronze by burying it in sawdust and peeing on it every day for a month. The gold color changed to black with verdigris streaks. The recipe came from a Chinese friend I knew in art school.
Interesting video Magdad. Is this procedure something that you will start using more than cold blueing? I am going to try this. Thank You for sharing!!
Came out nice. Next time you might think about mounting the punch in a drill chuck and spinning it while pinching it with the abrasive. Would also work with the wire brushes.
Thanks for watching Gary! The 1x30 sander does a nice job on the square end of the punch. I've had really good results with the Red Label conditioning belts. th-cam.com/video/-txSVOHgptA/w-d-xo.html
BTW, you can blue larger parts (like gun barrels) as long as at least 1/2 of the object can be submerged. Essentially, you boil one half for the color change and then the other half. As long as the boiled parts overlap, you can get a consistent result. I have heard of guys who can develop black oxide just by setting the item in a non stove top safe tube and then covering the object in multiple changes of boiling water. I didn't have any luck with this, but I really didn't try too hard.
I like how that turned out, I'm planning on doing a conservation to a JC Higgins shotgun and I want to keep it looking correct, and this looks a lot closer to and easier than most of the processes I've been researching. One thing I did notice in you video as compared to others I have watched is the prep you did before you started the process, they would disassemble the firearm and go directly into the first boiling treatment, without doing any of the prep you did.
Very nice job. I remember back in the 60's and 70's, gun companies jealously guarded "their" bluing process. These days it's almost all a matte process of some sort. The punch turned out nice.
Ty for the vid I’m gonna try this with a hatchet head that I sanded down to bare steel. I was looking at different cold bluing products and methods but I’ve heard that rust blue is a more durable finish and it’s done with cheap household items. Doesn’t look too difficult
It came out awesome. I had sanded the hell out of this thing but the only part that was actually bare steel was the inch or so near the edge that I had reprofiled with a file. The bare steel came out a much darker more even tone, while the rest has an authentic used patina look. I wasn’t as careful as you, scaled up your recipe large enough to dip the whole hatchet head, mixed two batches spread over six applications, didn’t degrease between applications, and reused the boiling water for every one. Still happy with the results, looks so much better than the vinegar patinas I’ve tried which never seem to work like they do in the “movies”. This will be my go to method for knives and axes from now on, thx again.
Tried it and it worked brilliantly. Best recipe I've come across yet, never thought of adding the hydrogen peroxide. Just did my two carbon steel knives and now they're a very dark grey. The trick for me was to really apply pressure when scrubbing with steel wool in between baths. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!!!!
Fascinating, nice work Magdad, that came out really well, amazing what you can do with a few basic ingredients, I just recently purchased some Hydrogen Peroxide for whitening some old discoloured plastic so might give this a try !
Thanks for the video. I recently purchased Oxpho Blue solution based on your earlier video. I will be using this for the first time soon when I cold blue the plates for a machinist clamp I am making. The home-made bluing solution looks really good, and inexpensive. Also thanks for the Lufkin article link. Very interesting. Dave.
You can do it only with vinegar, I have done it to my carbon steel knife from mora, heated the vinegar until its getting hot only so hot that if you stick the steel in it Beginns to bubble and you can let it in so long you like until the desired color is dark enough for you or do it a couple times ago, after washing it in plain water and cleaning, like you have done it after every dipping. 🤗
Thanks, great video and info, got a lot of stuff to reblue and i was not about to go mess around with cold bluing again because results never really last or look good enough.
That was interesting Magdad! Can't say I knew you could blue this way. The comic book is cool too.. hope I run into one of those out in the wild one day..good stuff
Originally the old gunsmiths would make a barrel and lockplates, then set them outside. They would go out and pee on them, or rub them with animal blood. The humidity would rust them overnight. They would then card those off and repeat the process. Finally, when they got the desired look, they would seal them with beeswax. This is "Browning". Supposedly, selenium was required for bluing. But, it looks like you have had success with common household items. Blood and urine were common household items in the day, too. During the Civil War, there were people that collected urine to turn into niter (saltpeter) for gunpowder. And, thanks for the measurement link.
@357magdad Yeah, I haven't used those either. I have a bottle of browning solution that I've had since I was 18 (52 years ago). I've done two barrels with it in that time, and both came out looking great. I have no idea what's in it, but it doesn't smell like pee, so I think I can rule that out.
Great new trick, thanks for posting. I patina a lot of different metals and have found that steel wool has oil on it to control rust and it will retard platinization on desired metal.
Well done, that came out really nice and even. That's thanks to the detailed carding - the better you card off the excess = the more even and deeper you get the finish. That is also why "slow rust bluing" is considered "slow". It's a time taking process which require reapplication after reapplication. The end results though, if done well, are not even very lustrous by also noticeably more durable than hot caustic bluing. You ought to give it a go with a full sized firearm sometime - you've got the methodology down, I'd bet you could come out with some really stellar results. Maybe just do a beater you pick up at a gunshow for that purpose.
Thanks David! Give it a try! Check out my comparison videos: th-cam.com/video/QkcKGgHGRo8/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/Z5ubCDqQwt4/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/H9sngIhUGI8/w-d-xo.html
I've always had good results using a hot vinegar and salt solution and submersing the piece in it for anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours then rinsing with soda water and then oiling the piece. I've never used this process.
@@357magdad tried it on some old pliers and wrenches. It does give a good result but, not enough for me to justify the extra work over vinegar and salt or regular cold bluing.
@@jverniceOf course ratios are unit independent. However, the devil is in the details. It's one TABLE spoon of vinegar to one (or 3/4 depending on whether you trust the video or the caption) TEA spoon of salt. The ratio of tea spoon to table spoon volume isn't something I am familiar with, which is why I converted everything into a proper ratio of equal parts. There, I've spent 15 minutes reviewing the weird thing I wrote in a comment one year ago. The fifteen minutes I'm never getting back :)
If you use the activator thats used in fiberglass resin, or the hardener which ever youd call it, the clear peroxide based activator. The stuff will do the same thing except much much faster. And you cant get any on your hands and leave it or itll burn your skin.. is like 40% peroxide instead of the 3% you used..
A very interesting project, do you think the surface finish of the object will make a difference to the finished result due to the reflection, the commercial cold blue comparison punches appear to have a smoother surface finish. Many thanks for posting this! Chris B.
I had this spray that was some sort of rust off, my brother gave me he got from his work. I prayed it on this metal horse I had that was rusty. It turn it black and de-solved the rust. It was a good thing because I didn't want to sand it would have took a long time.
@@357magdad yes that's exactly what I did was painted. I'm going to try what you did on your video on a few tool's I'm going to restore, a pip wrench and a hammer head. Thanks again for sharing 👍🏽
Very nice result. I have toyed a bit with hot bluing small parts on a vise I restored. It looked great on jaws and on swivel base screw lock assemblies. Have you tried hot bluing?
Thanks for the video. I will use this on my Iver Johnson revolver restorration. Will a mirror polish achive a shiny colt 'Royal blue' like finish when rust bluing, or have no benefit at all?
I don't want my comment to echo all of the others but that turned out nicely! I have some old tools to practice that technique with but have to get my 85 Kawaski 750 turbo bike back together first. Almost there!
Any idea what you can do to turn your rust remover into a gel form that will stick to a surface like the undercarriage of a car you want to remove the rust on? Thank you
Will this work on an already (normally) rusted metal? Like, if I boil it, will it also turn black? And, can normal water be used? Or has to be distilled water or it won’t work? Ty
been absolutely obsessed with this reaction recently! love the presentation, definitely subscribing. I wonder if you could somehow use this for fume bluing, I'm not sure if the acid lets off enough fumes though. I might have to try that out.
good job, but I'm interested in knowing the proportions you use of distilled water, salt and peroxide, thanks Putting a lot of salt neutralizes the acid of the vinegar
I use with a little variation a similar process. I use a 60-50 mix of vinegar and H202. I degrease with acetone, not a petroleum product. Otherwise essentially the same. This mixture is more eco=friendly and safer than solutions based on Nitric acid or other chemicals.
Here's the link to Lufkin's The Amazing Story of Measurement comic book:
archive.org/details/LufkinTheAmazingStoryOfMeasurement/page/n19/mode/2up
Nice looking results!! Just a tip for anyone out there: Every time I see one of these blackening videos (not yours) they always use metal channellocks or needle nose pliers to pick up the piece being blackened. Then they say "be careful not to scratch it" Lol. The best way is to use kitchen tongs with silicone ends/tips, with steel handles. Just a recommendation to prevent any scratches and achieve a better result. Hope this helps. Thanks.
You can do the conversion on small parts using a kettle to boil the water and a plastic container to hold everything...works well. For larger items, steaming in a tube works great for conversion.
Thanks for watching!
I used your formula to rust blue a 100 year old broad hatchet. I put on six coats, boiling between coats and carding between coats. It did good. It looks 100 years old, again. I had to hang a new handle in it, which I rubbed down with walnut stain and started coating with linseed oil.
I'm glad you had success rust bluing John! I'd love to see a couple photos of your project! 357mdad@gmail.com
@@357magdad ok
Turned out nice! I like the idea of using stuff you have around the house. Back when I reloaded a lot I used a mixture of water, salt, and vinegar to clean the cases. made the cases look new inside and out.
Thanks Michael!
Nice! I experimented with rust bluing many years ago. It was a lot of fun bluing various tools and experimenting with different acids for various results. That concoction makes a nice black. Pilkington results in a silvery gray like some of the old high end shotguns from England.
Thanks John! It was fun experimenting!
Wow. This is what I was looking for! Been wanting to blue some parts but didn’t want to cold blue! That punch turned out awesome!
Give it a shot Aaron! Let me know how your project turns out!
This is a very interesting technique and something I would like to try. The punch looks great and I noticed the rust bluing seems to have a more uniform finish to it than the cold bluing. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks John! If I took the tags off it would be hard to pick out which punch was rust blued.
I was taught Oil Bluing back in the 1970s and it was still being taught, by me as a technical teacher, till I retired.
Thanks for watching!
I don't remember what my teacher called it in my H.S. metals class, but we were taught to heat the item(in our case, a center punch) with an acetylene torch, then quench it in dirty motor oil multiple times. That was in 1977.
Oil bluing is good for thicker parts, because of the heat involved, rust bluing is recommended for shotgun barrels especially doubles. I think rust bluing is pretty cool, more true to most of my back powder guns periods
@357magdad can you use cleaning vinegar? I can't find distilled at my local stores
Thanks for showing how accessible this process is with easy-to-obtain resources. Also, thanks for explaining the advantages -- better corrosion resistance was a pleasant surprise!
Thanks Scott! Check out my extended corrosion test:
th-cam.com/video/H9sngIhUGI8/w-d-xo.html
This is great. Non-toxic, cheap, and effective. Going to use this to restore the nuts and bolts on my Ford tractor. Thank you!
Thanks! Let me know how you make out!
When cleaning, grinding small round parts, I chuck them in a cordless drill and run it in the opposite direction of the belt sander. It almost eliminates flat or uneven spots. It even helps with cleaning up the punch face.
Thanks Robert!
I used this to blue some new screws I got for my air rifle. If doing multiple coats, I found that dipping in acid and then coating with plain H2O2 and salt solution was better than mixing all three together. Acid dipped just for the first coat, all subsequent coats were just peroxide and salt.
The acid soak was 50% acetic acid for 10 minutes.
Thanks for the info!
I generally heat blue small screws, in a bed of brass chips for uniform heating
Where did you get 50% acetic acid? Normal white vinegar is only 5% acetic acid.
@@MaximRecoil You'll have to get "glacial acetic acid" from a store selling lab chemicals or online. It's 99%+ pure acetic acid
Fantastic. I cannot wait to do this to some pliers. Thank you. Now I have to figure out how to make distilled water and I have to find non iodized salt. Busy busy.
You can find distilled water and non-iodized salt at any grocery store.
@@357magdad I was kinda joking. I live in Japan so I always have to get my wife to translate my crazy requests. Good timing is called for. Non iodized salt is also called Kosher salt. Love your videos.
WOW man!!! i had an object waiting for me to blue for the past year and i couldn't find an actual cheap recipe. where i live all chemicals and rust bluing products are scarce and expensive. thx you!!!!
Let me know how your project turns out!
Thanks for making and posting this. Well done. I also did a version of this only with an axe head submerged into a mixture of Peroxide & Salt. (can't remember if I use Vinegar). heated the mixture in Stainless frypan on BBQ, submerged axe for a maybe 10 or so minutes. Took it out and ran cold tap water over it. Did this several times until entire axe head turned black. Someday I'll put a handle in it and hang it up. Thanks for your tutorial.
Thanks William!
I have a bunch of tools to clean up from years of neglect. I've been just wire wheeling and oiling, but they still don't look great. I think I'll give this a try. It could give them a nice, uniform look so they would appear to belong together instead of just being a bunch of old tools. And extra rust resistance would be just the thing for tools that have already suffered enough rusting.
Give it a try and let me know how you make out!
Great photography. I’m VERY interested in doing some of my older firearms. I’ll keep watching
Thanks for watching!
This is probably the best video I have ever watched. You are outstanding!
Wow! Thank you!
Very nice appearance. I like the even, mild sheen rust bluing provides. The superior corrosion resistence is certainly a big bonus.
Thanks Pat! It is a good look for vintage tools!
I've a load of old & antique tools that need refinishing. Some came with parts nickel, others japaning. But there's a load of items that this process will be the perfect finish
Thats super interesting! I use the same recipe for faux rust finish and had never heard you could ad a step for blueing. I cant wait to try it on something :)
Give it a shot and let me know how you make out!
I did this with a German Walther PPK/S that I got in bad shape. Took me about 5 or 6 dips to get it dark enough. I'm not sure if it was just so imbedded with oils over 50 years that degreasing didnt work as well, but it finally came out with a classic but very nice finish. I hit it with a denim wheel after to really give it that black chrome look
I'm glad your project turned out well!
Before I scrolled down to see the uploader I guessed that Lufkin Comic was going to be another Mark Stansbury upload, that guy's an Uploading Beast! Over 7500 uploads.
archive.org is a great resource for vintage tool catalogs.
To protect my knives I use ferric chloride. No heat necessary. Just clean them thoroughly with warm soapy water and then with alcohol. Paint some Ferric Chloride on to the blade, wait a few minutes, rinse with water, then rise with water and baking soda to neutralize any acids left. Don’t wipe it dry, just pat it dry. Works best in warmer temperatures than on cold days. It still works in the cold but takes longer. You can also warm the Ferric Chloride a bit if you want faster results.
Result? A knife or tool that won’t form red rust because you’ve induced a stable black rust to prevent it. Food safe as well.
Colors vary from dark grey to near black, steel depending. I’ve done it on many knives, crowbars, and other tools.
It lasts and does what it’s supposed to. I learnt this method from etching “Damascus steel” (pattern welded steel).
Thanks for the info!
You don't need to fully submerge parts in boiling water. If you can construct a steam chest and pipe hot steam in, you can do much larger objects. A temporary steam chest can even be a big cardboard box with a hole at the bottom for an old school (no auto shutoff) electric kettle.. It will last long enough to do a whole rifle barrel and receiver and you can just toss it afterwards..
Thanks for watching!
Niiiiiiiice!!
I've always used manganese dioxide for bluing and it's nice to see something worth changing to that's not as toxic!
Thanks for watching! Give it a try!
I use brake-kleen for nearly everything around the garage, except for items to be welded, including a couple of firearm components, plus the use of acetone. Recent experiments for my bluing have been greatly improved with use of Denatured Alcohol, instead of the prior mentioned cleaners. My bluing comes out so even and seems to have better saturation of the bluing chemical, and takes less time. I have a darker visible difference in the items blued when using alcohol as compared to acetone or brake-kleen. Thanks to this video, now I have alternate inexpensive materials to use and experiment with.
Thanks for watching!
Is "De-Natured" Alcohol the same as IPA *IsoPropalAlcohol ?
@@markoreilly3414Methanol alcohol with bitterant added, denatonium benzenoate I believe
This is a very nice and informative presentation of a subject that has been shrouded in mystery for years. Your cordless drill will make a good addition to your belt sander for cleaning and round and tapered details. 12 gauge double barrels, not so much. ;-)
Thanks for watching!
Works pretty well. I did a few dozen little hex bits that were lying around from cheap tool sets that randomly materialized in my shed, and a bunch of nail sets and punches including I think the same one you did, if it's starret. Fairly ugly until the 3-in-1 goes on and then it looks right.
I'm glad you had success with rust bluing!
I'm pretty sure any number of formulas exist. Years ago, I discovered a variant that uses steel wool as a catalyst. Preheat metal, when up to 180-200F, apply concentrated super blue gently with steel wool. Instant rust on even many high alloy parts up to the "semi stainless". Concentrate superblue or permablue by leaving the tops off till 40-50% of volume is gone. A couple of tricks on cold blue, preheat metal with a heat gun, add a few drops of 10% acetic acid (from amazon). I always mix chems on the work, or in tiny amounts and discard any unused. All of these will RUST blue. Last note, Brownells Oxopho-blue is a blackening rust process, at least if you get the metal above 180f. Do ALL metal shaping and prep prior, Best to take it down to the base metal in the white, but I have done it on top of both rust, and surface voids that would CONVERT, the rust, to blackening, and actually fill some small surface pits. Finish with a very fine carding wheel, looks like a wire brush, NEVER EVER contaminate your carding wheel with stupid stuff like using it as a wire brush, like cleaning auto parts. If you do, toss it, get another also on amazon. Best $20 you will spend. I recently did a receiver from a homemade frame ak for a friend. Just heated it with a vidal sassoon hair dryer, oxphoblue, rinse, card and repeat, only 3 times. This thing had a finish that you would swear was airbrushed with a light coat of black paint, and believe it or not, you would swear there was a super lite coat of automotive clearcoat on it! I was a mechanic in a past life, and I know what that would look like! I laid it by my 1915 Mauser brand P08, and you can see clearly how they did it! The finish on the two guns was remarkably close. I cannot believe how much of my life was wasted on cruddy cold blue efforts till I discovered this.
Ah, forgot the other trick, heat your blueing solution in a microwave. Since your bottle is likely quite small, and will heat very quick, slow down the microwave heating by putting a cup of water in with the container, separate, of course!
Thanks for watching! And thanks for the info!
Thank you very much for this rust bluing recipe. I've been looking for a working recipe with easy to obtain ingredients for quite a while. So far all I've found have involved some "exotic" salts which are really hard to obtain here in Sweden. These ingredients I can find in the local grocery shop and pharmacy.
Thanks for watching! Let me know how the DIY formula works for you!
Very interesting. Thank you. I read somewhere that during WW2, the Japanese used urine to make some type of "anti-rust". Their government urged citizens to save their urine for collection. I read the article a very long time ago and have not been able to confirm this since that time. On another matter, instead of brushing the bluing on, I see that a lot of machinists just immerse the part into the bluing and let it stay in the solution for a bit. They do use commercial bluing and seem to get a nicer job then I can get using brushes, cotton swabs and etc. I haven't tried this yet, but plan to. Thanks again!
I once got a very interesting patina on bronze by burying it in sawdust and peeing on it every day for a month. The gold color changed to black with verdigris streaks. The recipe came from a Chinese friend I knew in art school.
Interesting video Magdad. Is this procedure something that you will start using more than cold blueing? I am going to try this. Thank You for sharing!!
I've used it here and there if the part is small enough to boil.
Sounds interesting Michelle!
Thanks for the info! Submerging would probably work too.
Awesome video. I have cold blued many of my father's older guns. I definitely plan on using your process and formula moving forward.
Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!
Came out nice. Next time you might think about mounting the punch in a drill chuck and spinning it while pinching it with the abrasive. Would also work with the wire brushes.
Thanks for watching Gary! The 1x30 sander does a nice job on the square end of the punch. I've had really good results with the Red Label conditioning belts.
th-cam.com/video/-txSVOHgptA/w-d-xo.html
Yep use the drill as a mini-lathe!
BTW, you can blue larger parts (like gun barrels) as long as at least 1/2 of the object can be submerged. Essentially, you boil one half for the color change and then the other half. As long as the boiled parts overlap, you can get a consistent result. I have heard of guys who can develop black oxide just by setting the item in a non stove top safe tube and then covering the object in multiple changes of boiling water. I didn't have any luck with this, but I really didn't try too hard.
You can also steam it. Just run a kettle up a pipe. Faster, easier and safer than trying to boil a 26 inch steel rod
I will try that next time.
You do not want to use this method for gun barrels. The peroxide can weaken hardened steel. That's very bad if you plan on firing said gun.
@@MrEazyE357 I would need to see the chemistry.
@@jachse8464ignore the hydrogen comment. It's complete bs...
I like how that turned out, I'm planning on doing a conservation to a JC Higgins shotgun and I want to keep it looking correct, and this looks a lot closer to and easier than most of the processes I've been researching. One thing I did notice in you video as compared to others I have watched is the prep you did before you started the process, they would disassemble the firearm and go directly into the first boiling treatment, without doing any of the prep you did.
Thanks for watching Wes! I think you can convert any existing rust by boiling also.
WOW 😎 The knurling looks great Nice look on the whole thing Looks cool watching it turn black
The red rust turns black like magic!
Very even coating Magdad! Looks great... I've been wanting to try some bluing... I think I'll try this type first. Thanks Magdad
Give it a shot and let me know how you make out!
Very nice job. I remember back in the 60's and 70's, gun companies jealously guarded "their" bluing process. These days it's almost all a matte process of some sort. The punch turned out nice.
Thanks Stephen!
Ty for the vid I’m gonna try this with a hatchet head that I sanded down to bare steel. I was looking at different cold bluing products and methods but I’ve heard that rust blue is a more durable finish and it’s done with cheap household items. Doesn’t look too difficult
Give it a shot! Let me know how you make out!
It came out awesome. I had sanded the hell out of this thing but the only part that was actually bare steel was the inch or so near the edge that I had reprofiled with a file. The bare steel came out a much darker more even tone, while the rest has an authentic used patina look. I wasn’t as careful as you, scaled up your recipe large enough to dip the whole hatchet head, mixed two batches spread over six applications, didn’t degrease between applications, and reused the boiling water for every one. Still happy with the results, looks so much better than the vinegar patinas I’ve tried which never seem to work like they do in the “movies”. This will be my go to method for knives and axes from now on, thx again.
I learnt a very interesting new skil today and I'll apply it as soon as I can.
Thanks a lot!
Thanks for watching!
Wow. I think I like the rust bluing better. You are so patient. I normally do not like bluing but now I may want to try that. Thanks for the video.
Find an old punch and give it a try Ben!
Thanks 357magdad ... thoroughly enjoyed the vid ... bluing is an art and the many ways of accomplishing bluing is the art-form, knowledge is power
Tried it and it worked brilliantly. Best recipe I've come across yet, never thought of adding the hydrogen peroxide. Just did my two carbon steel knives and now they're a very dark grey. The trick for me was to really apply pressure when scrubbing with steel wool in between baths. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!!!!
I'm glad you had success rust bluing your knife blades!
Very interesting! Never heard of this process. Thanks magdad!
Thanks Doug!
Pretty nice video. Wander what would be a creative way to heat up a part that’s not able to submerge in water without weaking the metal ??
Gunsmiths use steam.
That was interesting and good to know. The home brew looked as good as the commercial products. Thanks
Thanks Tony! It was fun to experiment!
Never had heard of this technique - fascinating Magdad!
Thanks Chris!
Wow what a great result. I should try this out... But I have so many projects in my mind.. Thanks for showing!
Thanks Alex! Give it a try on a punch or maybe a vintage engineer's wrench!
Fascinating, nice work Magdad, that came out really well, amazing what you can do with a few basic ingredients, I just recently purchased some Hydrogen Peroxide for whitening some old discoloured plastic so might give this a try !
Thanks Andy!
Thanks for the video. I recently purchased Oxpho Blue solution based on your earlier video. I will be using this for the first time soon when I cold blue the plates for a machinist clamp I am making.
The home-made bluing solution looks really good, and inexpensive.
Also thanks for the Lufkin article link. Very interesting.
Dave.
Thanks Dave! The Oxpho Blue seems like good stuff! Let me know how your project turns out!
You can do it only with vinegar, I have done it to my carbon steel knife from mora, heated the vinegar until its getting hot only so hot that if you stick the steel in it Beginns to bubble and you can let it in so long you like until the desired color is dark enough for you or do it a couple times ago, after washing it in plain water and cleaning, like you have done it after every dipping. 🤗
I've also heard of using a potato to force patina on a blade.
@@357magdadcan you do a video about it tho😅
Great video! I just wonder what concentration the white vinegar is. Readily available concentrations here in Sweden are 6% and 12%.
I used regular grocery store white vinegar. 5% acidity.
Fantastic job and a fantastic video thanks for sharing your time ☕👍🇬🇧
Thanks Brian!
Thanks, great video and info, got a lot of stuff to reblue and i was not about to go mess around with cold bluing again because results never really last or look good enough.
Thanks Lorenzo! Give it a try and let me know what you think!
That was interesting Magdad! Can't say I knew you could blue this way. The comic book is cool too.. hope I run into one of those out in the wild one day..good stuff
Thanks Vic! The copies on ebay are not super expensive.
This was a new one on me and to quote Spock "fascinating". Thanks for the post.
Thanks for watching! Live long and prosper!
You could almost call that blackening compared to the bluing solutions. I do like the darker color better. Love Matt's Blues too.
Thanks Kim! I figured the music title fit the topic!
I like it, going to give it a try on a couple small projects I have. Thanks for the video sir.
Give it a try and let me know how you make out Terry!
This was so cool to watch. Very interesting. Thank you for making and sharing this video.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
That's GREAT! Had no idea about this process. Definitely trying that on a knife sometime
Thanks for watching! Give it a try and let me know how you make out!
Originally the old gunsmiths would make a barrel and lockplates, then set them outside. They would go out and pee on them, or rub them with animal blood. The humidity would rust them overnight. They would then card those off and repeat the process. Finally, when they got the desired look, they would seal them with beeswax. This is "Browning". Supposedly, selenium was required for bluing. But, it looks like you have had success with common household items. Blood and urine were common household items in the day, too.
During the Civil War, there were people that collected urine to turn into niter (saltpeter) for gunpowder.
And, thanks for the measurement link.
I asked Mrs Magdad, trying your ingredients is not gonna happen! 🙄
@357magdad
Yeah, I haven't used those either. I have a bottle of browning solution that I've had since I was 18 (52 years ago). I've done two barrels with it in that time, and both came out looking great. I have no idea what's in it, but it doesn't smell like pee, so I think I can rule that out.
The cold bluing looks like it worked good. Not only does it look nice, it offers some protection.
Thanks for watching Pete! The rust bluing offers superior corrosion protection.
Great new trick, thanks for posting. I patina a lot of different metals and have found that steel wool has oil on it to control rust and it will retard platinization on desired metal.
Thanks for watching Don! I make sure to clean the part with brake cleaner or denatured alcohol after buffing with steel wool.
The rust blueing is much warmer, thanks for showing the comparisons
Thanks for watching! There are some ready made rust bluing formulas you can buy that will give the metal different colors.
Well done, that came out really nice and even. That's thanks to the detailed carding - the better you card off the excess = the more even and deeper you get the finish. That is also why "slow rust bluing" is considered "slow". It's a time taking process which require reapplication after reapplication. The end results though, if done well, are not even very lustrous by also noticeably more durable than hot caustic bluing. You ought to give it a go with a full sized firearm sometime - you've got the methodology down, I'd bet you could come out with some really stellar results. Maybe just do a beater you pick up at a gunshow for that purpose.
Thanks for watching!
I used to work in a gun shop that did gun smithing and this is exactly the same process used by the gun smiths that blued guns for customers.
Thanks for watching Brandon!
nice video
I'm going to try that process.
You should do a follow up and test the durability between the two methods.
Thanks David! Give it a try! Check out my comparison videos:
th-cam.com/video/QkcKGgHGRo8/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/Z5ubCDqQwt4/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/H9sngIhUGI8/w-d-xo.html
Great experiment, MD!
Thanks! It was fun to experiment!
Excellent tutorial and result. Thanks
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the recipe. It’s working great on my FN Mauser.
I'm glad you had success Mark!
Thanks for posting this... I was looking for a way to blue some antique firearms I'm working on. Thanks again.
I hope you have success with the process. There are some rust bluing solutions on the market that give a more antique color to the metal.
I've always had good results using a hot vinegar and salt solution and submersing the piece in it for anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours then rinsing with soda water and then oiling the piece. I've never used this process.
Give it a try!
@@357magdad tried it on some old pliers and wrenches. It does give a good result but, not enough for me to justify the extra work over vinegar and salt or regular cold bluing.
I Love this simple and informative video. You’ve got me motivated to do this on some small parts I have
I'm glad my video got you motivated! Let me know how you make out! 357mdad@gmail.com
Very interesting. First time I’ve heard of this. Nice job !
Thanks Kris! I used the same recipe on that blade of this vintage spokeshave:
th-cam.com/video/4iyyRY8nFdo/w-d-xo.html
tnx ! i just did a knife with your method it went great! forgot to buff before the oil but it worked anyway
I'm glad it worked for you!
For metric-inclined audience, the ratio (by volume) is 16 parts peroxide to 4 parts vinegar to 1 part salt.
Thanks!
There are two types of nations in the world: those that use metric, and those who have landed men on the moon.
That’s pretty funny. Ratios have nothing to do with metric or SAE. It is units independent.
@@jverniceOf course ratios are unit independent. However, the devil is in the details. It's one TABLE spoon of vinegar to one (or 3/4 depending on whether you trust the video or the caption) TEA spoon of salt. The ratio of tea spoon to table spoon volume isn't something I am familiar with, which is why I converted everything into a proper ratio of equal parts. There, I've spent 15 minutes reviewing the weird thing I wrote in a comment one year ago. The fifteen minutes I'm never getting back :)
I love how he cut right to the chase you sir get a thumbs up and I'll be subscribing 😂
He's glad you subscribed! Welcome to the channel!
If you use the activator thats used in fiberglass resin, or the hardener which ever youd call it, the clear peroxide based activator. The stuff will do the same thing except much much faster. And you cant get any on your hands and leave it or itll burn your skin.. is like 40% peroxide instead of the 3% you used..
Sounds kinda dangerous!
I love it. Looks great!
Thanks Mark!
A very interesting project, do you think the surface finish of the object will make a difference to the finished result due to the reflection, the commercial cold blue comparison punches appear to have a smoother surface finish. Many thanks for posting this! Chris B.
Thanks for watching Chris! I finished all of the punches the same way.
I had this spray that was some sort of rust off, my brother gave me he got from his work. I prayed it on this metal horse I had that was rusty. It turn it black and de-solved the rust. It was a good thing because I didn't want to sand it would have took a long time.
There are many products on the market like you describe. They are usually used before painting an item.
@@357magdad yes that's exactly what I did was painted. I'm going to try what you did on your video on a few tool's I'm going to restore, a pip wrench and a hammer head. Thanks again for sharing 👍🏽
Very nice result. I have toyed a bit with hot bluing small parts on a vise I restored. It looked great on jaws and on swivel base screw lock assemblies. Have you tried hot bluing?
Thanks David! I've used flame bluing on several projects.
Cool comic book and the punch looks good as new
Thanks Larry!
Thanks for the video. I will use this on my Iver Johnson revolver restorration. Will a mirror polish achive a shiny colt 'Royal blue' like finish when rust bluing, or have no benefit at all?
Thanks for watching! I don't think the level of polish will change the color you get.
Think I'm going to try this on various degrees of polish on metal to see what looks best. The color looks a lot like Ruger's finish.
Give it a try Steve!
I don't want my comment to echo all of the others but that turned out nicely! I have some old tools to practice that technique with but have to get my 85 Kawaski 750 turbo bike back together first. Almost there!
You'll have the bike back together just in time for nice riding weather!
@@357magdad
It is one of 7. 5 rideable.
That really turn out real good Thank you for the video
Thanks for watching!
Any idea what you can do to turn your rust remover into a gel form that will stick to a surface like the undercarriage of a car you want to remove the rust on? Thank you
Evapo-Rust makes a gel rust remover:
amzn.to/3MufYAg
Wow that's awesome! I'm definitely going to try this sometime! Thanks for the info.
Thanks! Give it a shot!
Will this work on an already (normally) rusted metal? Like, if I boil it, will it also turn black?
And, can normal water be used? Or has to be distilled water or it won’t work?
Ty
Boiling will turn red rust black. It may take a while if the rust is heavy. You may not get good results with tap water, depending on what is in it.
Am going to try this on my knife.
Will this process change the temper of heat treated steel?
Boiling water is well below any steel temper.
@@357magdad
Just what I want to know, thank you so much
Good work. Looks great.
Thanks!
Interesting stuff Bud!!☻
Thanks RoadKing! It was fun experimenting!
been absolutely obsessed with this reaction recently! love the presentation, definitely subscribing. I wonder if you could somehow use this for fume bluing, I'm not sure if the acid lets off enough fumes though. I might have to try that out.
Thanks for watching and subscribing! I can't give you any advice on fume bluing. I'm not sure how toxic the solution is to breath.
Great idea , I wonder how it looks by now , did the blueing still holding up or it start to rust again ?
Rust bluing holds up very well. Check out my testing videos:
th-cam.com/video/QkcKGgHGRo8/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/H9sngIhUGI8/w-d-xo.html
I can't wait for springtime in Alaska, so I can work in my shop to try this. I have a lot of tools that need to re-blackened. (My shop isn't heated)
Give it a try and let me know how you make out!
Just to be clear you applied the vinegar salt and peroxide mixture with a brush, dried it, then transferred the punch to a pot of plain boiling water?
boiling distilled water
good job, but I'm interested in knowing the proportions you use of distilled water, salt and peroxide, thanks
Putting a lot of salt neutralizes the acid of the vinegar
Thanks for watching Bob! I gave the recipe 30 seconds into the video and also in the description.
I use with a little variation a similar process. I use a 60-50 mix of vinegar and H202. I degrease with acetone, not a petroleum product. Otherwise essentially the same. This mixture is more eco=friendly and safer than solutions based on Nitric acid or other chemicals.
Thanks for watching Ken!