Purple receiver?

E

Echo23TC

New member
My wife's new shotgun (Stevens 311) has a purple receiver. Unfortunately, neither of us cares all that much for purple! It is my understanding that this was probably caused when a former owner had the receiver hot blued after it was engraved. Is there any way to remove the purple finish without damaging the engraving and inlays? I'll rust blue it if I can just get that dang purple off!
 
Rust bluing requires "abrading" the surface with something like emery cloth to give the metal a "tooth" prior to the bluing process itself...you could lose definition and "erase" some of that engraving

In addition, you have no guarantee that the rust blue will color the metal any darker, it just may be that the receiver's alloy is too hard to take any kind of stain. Have you thought of leaving it in the white like so many beautiful engraved receivers?
 
Try some of Brownell's Ox-pho (cold) Blue. It does a great job and is surprisingly durable. You can probably do it OVER the purple.

(If not, get some Birchwood Casey "rust and blue remover" and start again.)

The are pictures of a CZ-75 that I redid using primarily Ox-Pho Blue on this forum. (Look for an article about Cold Bluing gone amok, or something like that.)

I've used it on several guns that I've taken down to the white, and you generally can't tell them, redone, from factory bluing.
 
I forgot to add...It may have been a cold blue or botched rust blue job, even a botched hot blue...maybe a new hot blue is the way to go
 
Thanks, guys.

Brownell's says that If I use their rust and blue remover, it will also remove the case hardening colors - know anybody who could re-harden it?

I don't know about leaving it in the white, wouldn't it be pretty susceptible to rusting?
 
Only marginally more than a blued receiver...

You would have to be a little more devoted to maintenance if you keep a carbon steel receiver in the white,,,keep in mind the use, will this be a field gun used in the fall? Blue in and of itsef offers little protection against the elements, a corrosion preventer is still required. Wipe down and wipe down often...

You're reciver is blued right? Where does the color case hardening come into play?
 
Well, I don't know if I'd call it "blued", it's more "purpled".
The reason I suspect case hardening is because my other Stevens 311 has a case hardened receiver, and also because I've never seen this color on a gun before. It's very different from the color of the barrels. Wish I could take a pic and show you.
The more I look into it, the more I think it's gonna stay purple or be white. I didn't mention that it has a couple of ducks inlaid on the bottom of the receiver - I don't know how they would take to being blued or case hardened.
 
You can tell case hardening usually by the variegated, multi-colored mottled appearance...usually streaks of color ranging from the green to the bluish to bronzish...If your receiver was case hardened at the factory and is now monochromatic purple, the color case hardening is now gone, not just the color but the case hardening itself...I'd talk to a qualified gunsmith at this point, since you may be looking at a metallurgical problem not just a cosmetic one...
 
A cause for the purple color could have been caused by the bluing temp being to high during a bluing process. If my memory serves, and many times it does not, bluing temp should be about 240 degrees. Depending upon the inlaid material, another bluing could or would not deface the inlays. This would depend upon the mellting temp of the inlay.

HJN
 
Re-bluing

Echo,

If you would like I would be glad to put you in touch with our technical people who might be able to give you some ideas on how to proceed if you haven't done anything yet. Send me an email with your phone number and I will have someone call you.
 
There are different reasons a part will come out of the bath purple colored. It's usually a direct result of the composition of the steel or how it was heat treated. Having the temp too high more often than not results in red streaks/coloring. Just last week I had a Winchester 37A that was blued along with a few other guns. Everything except the 37's receiver came out blue/black. The 37A had a purplish cast to it. I left it in the tank for the full day's bluing and at the end of the day it too was blued. A couple of months ago I had a guy bring in a Mauser with a purple reciever and in addition to rebarreling he wanted it reblued. It gave the same result at first but after leaving it in the tank for the full day it too finally blued. That way has worked for me many times over the years but there have been a few that just refused to turn black and wound up with the purple or plumb cast to them. I don't ever recall seeing one that had been cold blued turn purple. George
 
George is correct. One other thing, do not remove the part from the bluing tank after it reaches 200 degrees except to take a quick peek at the color. Fine rust forms sometimes when the part is removed at high temp.
 
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