? on polishing blued finish

L

laytonj1

New member
I recently bought a gun that has spent almost 30 years packed away with some type of oil? that dried on it's surfaces and clouded the finish.
I looking for recomendations for some type of polish/cleaner that will restore the finish without harming the bluing. Scrubing with Hoppes solvent did remove allot of it but not all...

Jim
 
Soak the gun in plain mineral spirits for a day or so. Soaking with WD 40 will work, too. Then use a rag to wipe the crud off. It's probably dried up oil.
0000 steel wool used very lightly will take anything left off.
 
I'd be pretty leery of using steel wool on a glossy blue, myself. I can't say I've tried it personally, but I can't help to think that it would leave fine scratches in the finish. Just rub a piece of polished aluminum with that steel wool & you'll certainly see swirl marks.

My method is to wipe (with a soft rag) the gun first with gun oil, then remove the oil residue with mineral spirits, or aerosol contact cleaner. Then I polish it with Mother's carnuba car wax, using a super-soft microfiber rag...that sucker will shine like a new penny after I'm done!:)
 
Superfine steel wool won't harm the finish. However, there is some evidence that microscopic bits get left behind and will themselves start to rust. Copper wool doesn't polish quite as good as steel wool (it's softer) but it doesn't leave behind anything that will rust.

I second the soaking. Almost any good solvent works good. My favorite is kerosine. One thing you will need to do after soaking is to get the solvent out of the internals. The reason I use kerosine is that if I don't manage to get every drop (I use an air compressor) it will dry leaving an oily film behind that serves as both lubrication and protectant.
 
I'd use a stiff toothbrush (or any good nylon bristle brush) after the soaking in MS. After cleaning make sure you get a good oil or abrasive free wax on there to preserve the finish.
 
Bill knows his stuff.

But most other people don't. You can use 0000 but be careful!!! I use it to buff out touch ups with cold blue. It works pretty well, but you can get carried away and - BINGO - it's ruined.

P.S.

I'd use 0000 before I'd use a tooth brush on my blued finish.
 
Last edited:
I was just about chased off this forum for suggesting that someone use 0000 steel wool on a blued finish. As with anything abrasive, you must determine the point of diminishing returns. You can also scratch the surface with the residue of what's been removed from the surface by the wool, so keep it flushed with oil as you work over the surface. You can soak the gun in kerosene (paraffin) without harm, to loosen junk and rust on the surface.
 
Flitz and a soft cotton work very well, and is not as abrasive as steel wool, so it removes that element of danger. It is a polish, which is what you are looking to do, right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top