[jar]

I gotta admit that I love blued guns. I love my HiPower Standard. I love my FEG and my Colts and my Smiths, all of those really deep blues that look like they are about an inch deep. But the manufacturers all say it's to expensive to make blued guns anymore.

Then I see the paint jobs on the new cars with the great clear coats and metallic irridescent paints and I wonder...

Isn't there some way using modern technology to make a blued gun that looks like those old blues but that isn't so labor intensive?

[This message has been edited by jar (edited 10-19-2003).]

 

[Majic]

It's all in the polishing. You polish the metal to a high luster before you blue and the finish results is the old time deep bluing. Paints mask the metal with layers upon layers. Bluing is just another form of rust (which is a chemical composition using the metal). You could paint a gun, but the moving parts would quickly wear or flake it off.
High luster polishing requires hours of manpower. If a machine could do it then we could see the old bluing come back.

 

[rcwambold]

This may be dangerous, but I'll mention it only because I'm somewhat of a, "neat-nut," when it comes to guns. Army training, I guess ... when I was a cop, I used to spit shine my leather gear and kept my gun looking GOOD. I use a German polish called, "Simichrome." It's available on the net. It's rather expensive, but it makes a SHINE. BEWARE, though, it WILL take some of the blue away. (Stuff must be rather caustic.) But what's left is pure gloss. So far, for some reason unknown to me, it works even better on S&W's than Colts. I've never owned a stainless gun but I'd love to see what it does there.

 

[hebejebe]

Yep, Simichrome.
I still have a 1.76 oz tube that I've had for more years than I care to mention; a little goes a long way and yes, I'm sure it's mildly abrasive.
It's great for getting that 'baked' on powder/lead off after putting a few hundred rounds through a gun using lead and Bullseye (flammable dirt).
I've also used liquid auto polishing compound rated at 1500 grit.
Will it wear the blue off?
Probably, eventually, but so far, no problem.
It DOES help the polish.
I bought one inexpensive Dick Special that looked like somebody had splattered milk on it and the result was a finish with button sized whitish splotches all over it. Normal cleaning had no affect on the splotches. A small dab of simichrome carefully applied and that baby SHINES now.

ps: a good paste auto wax after gun is cleaned up seems to help by providing a 'barrier' to crud as well as moisture.

YMMV

------------------
Eternal vigilance is the price.....