blueing mild steel

I read somewhere you can blue mild steel using bees wax, does anyone know the method?

The challenge is heating the object evenly, a bed of sand above a heat source is one way. Once the colour develops any oil or wax will help keep it.

I did this by heating with a cook's blowtorch!

Nice colour Neil

H

By far the best book on Colouring metal I have found is the Modern Gunsmith By James Virgil Howe 2 vols 1941
I have mentioned this before. it is still the best I know of.
It covers bluing, browning, heat colouring steel, brass and other metals. also durable wood finishing.
And of course gun smithing and tool making, using hand methods and basic machinery.
Even If you are not interested in firearms it is a gold mine.

**LINK**

Regards
John

I've had a quick look through 'Firearm Blueing and Browning', by R H Angier, dating from the 1930s, but still available as a reprint, from Stackpole Books (USA). This is the 'bible'. However, it shares that book's disadvantage of not having an index, so searching is a pain, and I might have missed something. I have found reference to wax being used only as an after-treatment, to provide corrosion protection. Like shoe polish, and the Karate Kid, 'wax on', then 'wax off'...

The book's a bit of a nightmare, because there are so many ways to produce the magnetite oxide on steel, varying from tedious hard work via alchemy to simple stuff. There's little guidance on their relative merits and the chemical nomenclature is obsolete in many places.

Cooking up in a boiling solution of 80oz sodium hydroxide and 50oz potassium nitrate in 1 gallon of water (sorry about the units) is easy and effective - and rather nasty... The desired boiling point is 140 C, and is adjusted by the amount of water. Since the water tends to boil off, you may wish to add more at some time. Beware! The colour develops rapidly. Rinse well, dry and oil. Like electroplating, surface preparation is everything, and thorough degreasing is vital. Solvent degreasing tends to leave residue: hot alkaline detergents are the way to go - and keep your hands out of the stuff!

Need to distinguish between chemical bluieing and heat / oil blueing , if you want to heat blue then check out the clickspring youtube channel his results are stunning .

I was tought to use old engine oil or transmissions fluid for heat / oil blueing .

Chemical blueing as used on guns is is to be avoided unless you like toxic chemicals and i used to go to the local saw blade manufacturer to get my guns blued - did a top job too !

Ian

I bought some Birchwood Casey Super Blue and it's very easy and quick on mild steel.

Can't say I "like toxic chemicals" as per Ian's comments above but sometimes they make sense.

HTH

Jon

Some cold bluing solutions contain Selenous acid, **LINK**
Best wear gloves and handle with care.

But then again some of the old hot bluing solutions contain Mercuric Chloride,  https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/mercuric_chloride#section=Top  When I was in my 20's I purchased a few ounces, Really nasty stuff and they just handed it over, all I had to do was sign a book. I used it to experiment with Howes formulas. found in the Modern Gunsmith. The result was very good but took a lot of time in and out of the bath then wire brushing many times between immersions. I survived.

As an aside I walked into an antique shop a few years back and there on some shelves was a collection of old chemist jars and bottles still full of various chemicals. One large jar was marked corrosive sublimate it was 3/4 full there must have been a KG of the stuff. I asked the owner if he knew what it was. He did not! Corrosive Sublimate is an old name for Mercuric Chloride. Surprisingly he was not concerned that that jar contained a seriously dangerous poison. Who knows what the other jars contained He liked the different colours!

Regards
John

Edited By John McNamara on 28/07/2017 09:09:55

Got some of the same stuff and i was going to do the nuts on my score engine and not too toxic , i was talking about the blueing gunsmiths use and it uses cyanide baths to cause the rusting of the metal.

If you want chemical blueing you can try your local saw blade manufacturers as they do it all day every day .

Yep Birchwood uses Selenous acid

See the safety sheet. **LINK**

My Father used to make cold blue in the 60's so a while back.

I am not trying to be a goody too shoes! Just suggesting that using it requires all due care.

Regards
John

There is a down side to just about anything John but it is always helpful to have people with your experience here to guide the less experienced through these processes .

I had a gunsmith that did a lot of work on my rifles and he did his own blueing , he admitted that it,was slowly killing him .

Ian.

I have just recievedt the DVD PDF for £6.99 from Ebay a very interesting read also 50 free e books on old guns with it.

Awesome job there Neil, key is getting the heat even throughout the whole block.
Its the heat method, colour there close on 260 degrees gone at 280 degrees.
XD that's the old Smith and Wesson way except they used to use cyanide until they figured why people were carking it usually after eating sarnies at dinner.

Had many a burn from hot blacking, it spits spewing out 145 degrees minimum to 160 degrees.
Quality cold blacking still needs to boil around 100 degrees, paint it on it rusts, wire wool back and repeat numerous times.
The off the shelf bottles mentioned such as Hoppes, Birchwood Casey ok for touch ups as in screws and threading barrels. Not very durable wears off easily and usually patchy.

Then theres the burn the oil on to give the part a colour.

Books most were written decades ago and ingredients unavailable or substituted for others, most don't work in that respect.