I know that someone here is bound to have done this to a BP revolver. I know the general process, so here is what I'm working on...
Several years ago I stripped one of my 58's to bare metal and used birchwood casey plum brown to give it an uneven and very brown finish, which I then attacked it with steel wool to knock it down to what a revolver looks like after its seen many decades of carry and use.
And I ended up with this finish, which really looks a lot like an original 58 Remington that has survived to the present day...
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I intended to do the same thing with my 5.5 in barrel Remington but once I stripped it to bare metal, I liked the look so much that I just kept it "in the white" and have maintained it that way ever since. Every now and then I would have to touch it up with some steel wool to undo some mild staining. I know...you guys want a picture...so here's shorty as of a couple of days ago
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Well, I'm over the shiny now and really like the look of the original rust blued guns from the 19th century so I'm looking at the slow rust bluing process. From what I've researched, the process is:
1. strip and degrease the metal
2. apply an acid to kick up the oxidation process
3. leave it alone for several hours in a humid environment
4. boil the metal in clean distilled water for 10 - 15 minutes to convert the red oxide to a black oxide
5. gently card the metal
6. repeat step 2-5 until the desired finish is reached
Supposedly you get to a point where the metal will not oxidize any further and you have a nice blue-black finish thats highly rust resistant. It's been my experience that when you try anything the first time, you screw it up so I've been testing the process on an old knife. Pictures please?
OK
This is after two rusting and boiling and carding treatments
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So, you guys that have used this same process...how does my first attempt look so far? I know it's not nearly done yet and I plan to rust/boil/card for probably 4-5 more days at least. And what advice to you have about the process itself before shorty takes one for the team?
Several years ago I stripped one of my 58's to bare metal and used birchwood casey plum brown to give it an uneven and very brown finish, which I then attacked it with steel wool to knock it down to what a revolver looks like after its seen many decades of carry and use.
And I ended up with this finish, which really looks a lot like an original 58 Remington that has survived to the present day...
I intended to do the same thing with my 5.5 in barrel Remington but once I stripped it to bare metal, I liked the look so much that I just kept it "in the white" and have maintained it that way ever since. Every now and then I would have to touch it up with some steel wool to undo some mild staining. I know...you guys want a picture...so here's shorty as of a couple of days ago
Well, I'm over the shiny now and really like the look of the original rust blued guns from the 19th century so I'm looking at the slow rust bluing process. From what I've researched, the process is:
1. strip and degrease the metal
2. apply an acid to kick up the oxidation process
3. leave it alone for several hours in a humid environment
4. boil the metal in clean distilled water for 10 - 15 minutes to convert the red oxide to a black oxide
5. gently card the metal
6. repeat step 2-5 until the desired finish is reached
Supposedly you get to a point where the metal will not oxidize any further and you have a nice blue-black finish thats highly rust resistant. It's been my experience that when you try anything the first time, you screw it up so I've been testing the process on an old knife. Pictures please?
OK
This is after two rusting and boiling and carding treatments
So, you guys that have used this same process...how does my first attempt look so far? I know it's not nearly done yet and I plan to rust/boil/card for probably 4-5 more days at least. And what advice to you have about the process itself before shorty takes one for the team?
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, but I've finally finished up on the rust bluing project and the gun didn't really take on any kind of blue at all. It reached a nice looking gray tone after 4 sessions of the process described in post #1 and would not go any darker even after 4 more sessions. 
