Evening everyone.
I recently ran across something that has me wondering a little bit... I'm a former jeweler/metalsmith, so when I recently had to machine the head of a bolt for a new action screw on an old rifle I had just bedded, I ended up reaching for my old bottle of trublack to darken it back up since I don't have any bluing compound. This stuff is sold for blackening brass, copper, silver, and other non-ferrous metals, and is a selenium dioxide solution if I'm not mistaken. But it worked perfectly on the steel bolt. So in the interest of determining the difference between this and the DIY bluing compounds I figured I'd ask and see if anybody either knows the chemistry for the home bluing agents or what the difference between them and trublack is?
Thanks
I recently ran across something that has me wondering a little bit... I'm a former jeweler/metalsmith, so when I recently had to machine the head of a bolt for a new action screw on an old rifle I had just bedded, I ended up reaching for my old bottle of trublack to darken it back up since I don't have any bluing compound. This stuff is sold for blackening brass, copper, silver, and other non-ferrous metals, and is a selenium dioxide solution if I'm not mistaken. But it worked perfectly on the steel bolt. So in the interest of determining the difference between this and the DIY bluing compounds I figured I'd ask and see if anybody either knows the chemistry for the home bluing agents or what the difference between them and trublack is?
Thanks