Hey, Steve from Brownells here. Today we want to revisit cold bluing, covering some tricks and tips to make the job easier. Let’s take a look at how to deal with surface imperfections without fully disassembling or hot bluing your gun for a quick fix.
1. PREP THE SURFACE: Start with a clean surface. Use rubbing alcohol to clean off any oil or gunk.
2. USE OXPHO BLUE: We recommend Oxpho Blue. Pour a little into a separate container to avoid contaminating the solution in the bottle. Apply it to the cleaned surface.
3. APPLICATION TIPS: If you’re not getting a good color, try warming the steel or using 4-0 steel wool as an applicator.
4. TRY DIFFERENT COLD BLUES: If one type of cold blue doesn’t work, try another until you find one that does.
5. BURNISH IF NECESSARY: Sometimes, burnishing and reapplying can enhance the color.
6. WIPE DOWN WITH WATER: After achieving the desired finish, wipe down with water to dilute and remove any residues of the cold blue to prevent after rust.
7. OIL IT UP: Finally, spray it down with some oil, rub it in, and you’ve got a decent finish.
Remember, cold bluing might not get you a factory-type finish, but with patience and multiple applications, you can get close. Practice on mild steel like a 22 barrel for the best results.
For any questions or comments, feel free to post below or give us a call on the tech line. Try these tips to keep your guns from rusting, and we’ll see you next time.
hi Steve from Brownells and today we want to
revisit cold bluing now we’ve done this in the past but I think it’s worth doing again as
far as the application because there are some little tricks and tips that help make the job
a lot easier so let’s take a look um a lot of the time when you’re cold blowing you will be
dealing with just surface uh in imperfections holster wear what have you and you don’t want to
take the gun apart you don’t want to have it hot glued you just want a quick fix that makes it
look okay so easy enough um to begin with you need a clean surface so what I do is I clean the
surface with a little alcohol this is just regular rubbing alcohol just in case there’s some oil
or something on there now I’m going to be using oxpho blue which really doesn’t care all that
much if there is is oil on there but I do this just to get any kind of Gunk that’s on there
off there now we take our oxpho blue this is one of the little tips right here take a little
bit and put it in a separate container and never put your applicator back in this bottle because
if you do it contaminates the solution and in a couple months this stuff isn’t it’s just water
after that doesn’t work so we’ve got our surface prepped it’s pretty warm in here so I’m not
going to bother bother warming the steel but if you find you’re not getting a good color try
warming this up to where it’s still plenty easy to handle you can you don’t want it too hot
to handle you could even run it under some hot water just to get the temperature up on it
that speeds up the chemical reaction so let’s see we’ve got some areas in here let’s see
what happens if I put a little Oxo blue on here now you can see it’s trying to turn
color but not a whole lot so let’s try something else with oxpho blue you can
take four o steel wool and use that as an applicator so let’s dip that in there and
rub this down and see if we can darken that up a little bit if that doesn’t work we need
something a little rougher to take the Finish down but since this is a highly Pol piece I’m
going to settle for just darkening it a little bit now the other thing we can do and this is
what a gunsmith will do is if this particular cold blue doesn’t work you try another one
we’ll see if this does anything different here and I’m going to use a fresh
applicator I don’t have another separate vessel so I’ll just dip
a a fresh applicator in there and I see we’re getting a little more black
there it’s starting to take you let it sit for a second it’ll never blend completely you won’t
uh you won’t get that perfect perfect Factory type finish and I’m going to try burnishing
it just a tad too just to see if that helps sometimes if it stops working and you burnish
it a little bit it’ll start working again by reapplying so we’ve darkened it up a good bit and
by reapplying it enough times you will soon get to where it’s very close to the original finish
after you do get it to where it’s satisfactory for you you take a clean piece of cloth like
this I’m using a cleaning patch and I’ve got some water right here and you wipe it down
with water yeah you wipe your gun down with water and dry it off and what the water
does is it dilutes and dissolves the cold blue finish because that is
what has acids in it things like that that’ll cause after rust once
you’ve done that you just spray it down wipe it again and good to go now on this one we did pretty
well and a lot of times Cold bluing will not get you a factory type finish although I’ve seen guys
that could do it by just applying it over and over and over again till they have a dozen coats Maybe
15 coats on there and it gets closer but we did pretty well in the limited time that we’ve got
here now if you’ve got clean metal to start with with no finish on like this freshly sanded piece
of barrel the it’s perfectly straightforward then you just take we’ll take some more oxpho blue
and we’ll start applying it incidentally this is a piece of 22 barrel and if you want to
practice cold Bluing 22 Barrel is about the best stuff out there because it’s mild steel and
Mild steel likes cold blue better than anything so there we go we’re even getting a little bit
of a blue tint to this one in this light which is kind of neat I’m going to burnish it see if I
can get it to shine up just a bit and then reapply it and by doing that over and over you will
get a darker and and darker finish by the way if you have access to a sand blaster
instance Surface Prep very easy it looks good low luster but this is starting to
look good right now and we’ve only done two applications so far by the time you’ve
done half a dozen it looks as dark it’s starting to look as dark as the factory
blue now not bad you know it’s getting close so once you got it where you
want it go ahead take your wet rag use the water to dilute all that oxpho blue off there wipe it down and then give it a little shot of some
kind of oil rub it in and we’ve got a pretty decent finish just with three applications there
not bad at all now we can have gone three four or five more coats and got it even a little
deeper the nice thing about Oxo blue is it’s a very tough finish for a cold blue probably
a toughest cold blue out there that’s why I prefer to use it a lot of gunsmiths have it
as their first choice but the others are good too especially if the oxpho doesn’t take on the
particular steel you’re trying to color so with all that being said if you have any questions or
comments please let us know down below or give us a call on the techline in the meantime try to
keep your guns from rusting and we’ll see you next time
44 Comments
Thaks for n excellent presentation, Stve.
I have also a little trick for you, wear handgloves to protect your skin from dangerous biting chemicals.
I literally run water over the area I am bluing if possible. What I remember from chemistry class is that water (H2O) actually exchanges hydrogen ions with the acids in the bluing. Theoretically, this dilutes the cold bluing solution as stated in the video. Correct me if I am wrong, though! That class was quite a few years ago. The video was helpful, thanks.
Has anyone else noticed the AT4 in the gun safe behind him! 😂. Hell yeah!!!
Wears off fairly quick. No?
I wish that Oxpho came in a larger bottle. I'd like to cold blue the fence rails of my table saw and I'd hate to think how many of those little bottles it will take.
Nice, I think I'll use some blue when I inevitably get holster wear on my EDC Glock, which I'm already starting to notice on the front of the slide. To give it some black patina
I love you for this video!
631 Keenan Prairie
WHEN YOU OPEN A NEW BOTTLE
Remove ALL of the FOIL seal under the cap. The solution will react with that foil and ruin your solution after the first use.
Is there anything you can do for the smell?
ive "cold" blued guns for 20+ years , spots and even full guns, brownells bluing is the best ive used, i use both oxphoblue and dicropan , if one doesnt take very well the other usually will , sometimes it works by using both , appying some substantial heat helps a lot , best with a heat gun, but you CAN put total steel parts in the oven , at least 200' but i wouldnt go any more than 300, lather rinse repeat with his method as much as needed to get the darkness you want
47909 Quitzon Points
Thanks for doing this video. Do you ever have it turn to rust in a couple of days? If so what is the solution for when that happens? Have a good one.
809 Schaefer Route
I've found a big difference by switching brands of cold blue solution as well. Not one being better than another but there always seems to be one that each part reacts better with. Like the parts have preferences. That's a great tip.
I have had trouble getting the cold blue to bite sometimes. Will try your tips next time.
Hi Steve,
I accidentally left my Smith & Wesson SD 9 mm in my holster without cleaning it after use. When removing it from the holster, I noticed a build up of rust on the top of the gun. Since this part has a grey color, what would be the best way to remove the rust without damaging the grey? Thank you.
I was sent some Perma Blue from Sonoran Desert Institute. I own a Smith and Wesson SD40 VE. It has a stainless steel slide and barrel. Can I use the Perma Blue on it? If so, How would I go about doing it? I've searched the internet for several days on this matter, and all I can find is that it cannot be done, yet I have seen images of where people have done just that.
I was speaking with a gunsmith one day and talking about a rifle I had just recently refinished and the process I used for cold bluing. When I mentioned having used steel wool he said one trick to keep in mind is to clean the steel wool by boiling it in water with TSP as there will be oils in the wool that can cause issues with the cold blue not working properly and the TSP cleaning will remove the oils. I haven't tried this yet, so I don't know how well it will work…
Will this product work on Stainless Steel gun components?
I’m going to try this as all my guns went underwater in the Gulf flooding hurricane Helene with 3’ of water through my whole house. Even had salt water in my safe! 😣 Had some guns up high but furnishings tipped, floated, etc.
Thank you. Very instructive.
I know you are a great gunsmith but I would use the alcohol used for bunson burners which is more pure and has no water in it like regular medical alcohol you buy at the drugstore. Works better. However, using alcohol is good enough but using Acetone is the best. Acetone leaves almost no recidue and has zero water content and dries very quickly. Still I have used your methods for gun cleaning, repair refinishing of metal and wood as you are really a great gunsmith. I always gove you a Thumbs Up.
I tried bluing an old sks, but the bluing just rusted the gun even more so than it was.
Great, I'm new to this and wondered if there is a certain Brand of Cold Blue that will look close to WWI / WWII Guns or are all Cold Blue Brands the same looking Finish ?
Shouldn’t you degrease the steel wool before you use it to burnish the metal. I used oxpho blue with a hot water bath and stainless carding wheel on an old Spanish double barrel. It turned out just as nice as a Browning Superposed.
Steve, you are the man 😉
We really can’t see the area you’re working on or the affect your agent is having on the metal
Bob Ross of guns. Put a happy little blue over here. Maybe a little burnish there.
I have remington model 34 (patent pending version). I have restored it using solvent and brass brush. Would using cold blue on this model diminish its collectible value?
If not cold blue, do you have an alternative suggestion for my situation?
Thank you in advance
I’ve noticed with cold bluing that the higher the luster of the metal, the more difficult it is for the metal to take it. Example- mirror polished parts won’t accept the cold bluing as easily as blasted parts.
Eill this work on stainless steel?
Guys save your money,cold blue will wear off in no time,Its only meant too temporarily cover up a bad blue area.
Either do a hot blue OR Cerakote the gun.
Cold blue is a total waste of money !
Always have had good success with 44/40
Which spray do you use?
Shit just doesn’t work
👍 thanks for sharing!
after bluing I don't apply water, I oil down and, work perfectly
Does the blue help prevent rust or is the oil do it all?
Be sure to clean new 0000 steel wool with acetone to get oil it is ship with to prevent it from rusting before using it to blue with.
This video helped a lot thanks
Hi Steve, great video as usual.
Sorry if this is too long, but it's a topic that is important.
In 1963 I began my career as a design engineer and I retired eight years ago. But back then, a day job was just not enough. My love for guns and shooting drove me to the natural place; a second job as a gunsmith to occupy my evenings and weekends. Since I already was a fair machinist, the rest was to come through experience and books. I love my second job since I have been doing the gunsmith thing for about a half-century. Along the way I have picked up some very helpful books – some very expensive and some very informative. From those volumes I have learned how to make springs and properly temper them, secrets to getting a beautiful oil-rubbed French finish on walnut stocks and other little machine shop tricks.
But the most practical and most used of all these craftsman's tomes are the “Gunsmithing Kinks” series of three volumes. Frank Brownell along with Bob Brownell put together a wealth of “must have” information … if you really want to be a serious gunsmith.
To the Point: “Cold Bluing”
I have been using “Oxpho Blue” and “Dicropan” since, well, forever. The other brands use a 'copper-black cold chemical plating' system that is not as durable. Every time you clean your gun you will be removing some of the finish. The Oxpho chemical reaction works with the steel directly and thereby has a much more tenacious bond. There are different application techniques you may choose to use, but some of the materials and procedures must be adhered to, like degreasing and cleanliness.
HINTS: How I do it, you may wish to vary the process to your liking.
1. Use acetone instead of alcohol to degrease the parts. It is just not as aggressive for neutralizing oils and leaves behind water. Just a suggestion.
2. Warm the part to be blued. Something above body temperature but less than pain (130 F).
3. NEVER double-dip the swabs or patches – use a separate small container.
4. Cotton balls or cloth seems to work best for swabs (cleaning patches)
5. Burnish with 0000 steel wool (4 ought).
6. Stubborn areas or some unfriendly alloys may require that you apply the Oxpho using the steel wool as a swab. Apply and blend with 0000 steel wool.
7. Burnish lightly until uniform – no more.
8. Wipe with clean wet cloth – then a dry cloth.
9. Repeat until desired depth and uniformity are achieved, then coat with detergent-free oil and let stand overnight.
Typically, four applications will give a nice utility finish, but if you have a special piece, you may want to go for eight or nine times. Burnishing (carding) between steps is very important. I recently refinished a Hi-Standard Supermatic barrel that came out beautiful. It took about 11 applications before I overcame my obsession.
BTW: In the sunlight, that barrel has a slight hint of that old Colt Royal Blue. Incredible.
It's not my intention to put down the other cold blue chemicals. I have used 44-40, and others, often for touch up on holster wear or inappropriate storage damage. You be the judge, experiment and have fun with it … you can always start over.
Thanks to Brownells for so much help over the years.
Great demo bro, 👍