re-blueing a gun ?

First off, I'm not going to a gunsmith. Has anyone tried to re-blue a gun? I tried on my .357 once....it sucked. It turned out brownish instead of the blueing color. I used the cheap Wally World kit. I didn't heat it in an oven either. Is there a secret to this?

I believe it has to be heated to correctly bond to the metal. I could be wrong

I have found blueing is a pain in the butt. It is basically controlled corrosion. There are cheap kits out there and better kits. Hot and cold kits. All of which can work but all of which can seriously lower the value of the firearm. There are many variables. Even if it is a semi valuable firearm, I wouldn't do it! Clean carefully and just leave it. If the metal is pitted at all, blueing won't fix that.

Different thought, if the stock is rough and kind of dull and dirty, use hoppes #9 gun solvent (brand new bottle) dab onto clean cloth and rub into wood. Will shine like crazy and make the wood grain pop like crazy.

But, Here is a YouTube video on blueing..

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oe0BxYvMazg

I have used that kit to re-blue original Mopar bolts instead of painting them or having them plated Black Zinc or phosphated by a plater. Stuff always came out really good if you follow the directions, Cheap way to make bolts almost like OEM. I know this has nothing to do with guns but wanted to throw my two cents in.

Hot blueing method is the best way to refinish a complete firearm but it is rather expensive to do yourself, best to go the gunsmith route for hot blue. Hot bluing is a different process with cold blue I do not like to heat metal, it dries the blueing too quick. You can cold blue and get nice results but it is not as deep a finish. I would degrease the metal, polish it to the degree of polish you want, then wipe everything down thoroughly with denatured alcohol. I then would use birchwood Casey blueing Creme spread evenly for about 30 seconds. The blueing cream will help you get an even blue without swirls etc. After the steel darkens and before it dries wipe off blueing cream with linen cloth and polish off all surface oxidation. I would repeat this until the metal takes on a deeper blue that is "in the steel"and not surface oxidation. That's why polishing between coats with linen is so important. I would then switch to liquid bluing and repeat same process many coats. Wipe it on, let it dArken about 20-40 seconds, wipe off and then cloth polish. I would repeat this many times. When finish is dark enough with no "surface" oxidation , I would not rinse with water, I sprayed it with WD-40 to rinse and then immediately cake a thick gun grease/oil mixture over all metal, after 24 hours I would polish the lube away with linen and make sure no surface oxidation is present. Then a light coat of oil and grease on all surfaces.

I tried rebluing guns for years and finally gave up. Cheaper to use a gunsmith, especially if you can wait until they get enough guns to do a group hot bluing.

The trick to cold bluing is to degrease it thoroughly. Hot soapy water. Then when applying the acid, don't rinse it between applications like they say in the directions. Let it sit for awhile then reapply. Only when you achieve the darkness that you are after, you rinse it. Took me awhile to figure it out. Use a cotton rag dampened with the acid.

have reblued many guns with the cheep kits.the best thing i have found is to remove all the old bluing and surface contaminants with navel jelly.like paint its all about the prep work.even did a 6 foot sword for a buddy,came out amazing.

Patina on a decent gun, is worth more than a refinished one. Especially one cold-blued in your house, with a chi-com refinishing kit..