Steel blackening

[dburke26]

Some steels don't blue well (ie the Winchester 94) when blued, even with deep tank alkaline bluing they just don't work. Suggestions?

[mcaswell]

Yes, some are much tougher to blue. What's your surface prep?

[dburke26]

caswell wrote:
Yes, some are much tougher to blue. What's your surface prep?

First I degrease, then bead blast, then sand to polished surface, if a polished surface is wanted then blue. The Winchesters are a molybdenum (pardon the spelling) alloy, and comes out blotchy. Thanks again, Dennis

[mcaswell]

Sounds like your doing everything right in the surface prep area...try heating the black oxide solution a little bit and making sure the part is 100% clean.

[bhysjulien]

If I remember correctly Winchester used a copper wash on some of their guns. You have to get the copper wash off the metal before it will blue satisfactorily.

Bryce