Cas City Forum Hall & CAS-L
CAS TOPICS => Gunsmithing => Topic started by: reno on August 14, 2017, 02:03:33 PM
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I have an older Cimarron 1866 Yellowboy, and the Hammer and Trigger are polished on the side not case colored. Question is can I blue the sides of the hammer and trigger and wipe it of a few times to make it look kind of like case color?
Thanks
Reno
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reno: I've experimented and applied what I learned to firearm metal by heating the metal area I wanted to color by heating the area with either a hair dryer or propane torch. I then applied either Brownell's Oxpho-blue or Dicopan IM with a Q-tip or swab. I'd wipe off before it dried and a color case hardening color would result. You don't want the metal so hot that the solution boils or dries upon contact. Ya gotta be careful too if using a propane torch you don't destroy any meal temper. You don't want to heat the metal hot, just real warm. I experimented with a lot of various steel using different heat ranges with both bluing solutions, finally using the barrel and frame of a old 51' Navy that was no longer serviceable for shooting. Did a lot of trial and error, was interesting procedure. If you don't like one result, the resulting color can be buffed off and a retry tried until you get a result ya like. It wears pretty good, it's not like real casehardening or the so-called chemical bath firearm companies use, but it does work. I've never done this on say a large area like a complete frame, but it works good for touch up and small area's. Haven't done it for 3-4 years, but I liked the results from the Oxpho-blue the best. This won't take the place of a professional job some gunsmith who has all the 'right stuff' for doing this could do, but works 'on the cheap' with what I used.