GUNSMITHING
A Cold Blue Cure
It can't fix all cosmetic ills, but it does what it does well.
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One of the more problematic aspects of gun tinkering is bluing, or better stated, the lack thereof. Bluing invariably gets worn, gouged or rusted off with dismaying frequency. With the high cost of a professional reblue, we are always searching for some inexpensive, easy way to put the bluing back on. Thus, we sooner or later find ourselves heading down the road of cold blues.
By "cold blue" I mean the common touch-up bluing found down at our corner gunshop that is simply swabbed on and then rinsed off, usually with plain tap water.
It's a rare neophyte who hasn't attempted to blue an entire gun with a cold blue. Even though some cold blue manufacturers advocate doing so, I have yet to see what I would call a satisfactory job. Regardless of brand, these blues have certain limitations you simply can't get around. When applying cold bluing to a large area, it's very difficult or even impossible to avoid streaks or splotchy light-and-dark spots. Also, no cold bluing I've found imparts the deep, rich, blue/black color of a real bluing job. Especially on large areas, cold blues typically have a somewhat grayish cast with a thin, metallic look regardless of how many coats are applied to the metal.
The single largest drawback of cold bluing, however, is that it provides no rust protection. In fact, some blues may even promote rusting. I have a sporterized '03 Springfield that I just can't seem to find the time to blue. Years ago I darkened the metal with a highly respected brand of cold bluing and soon discovered it made the perfect rust gauge. During those hot, muggy summer spells in the Midwest, it's always the first gun to take on a fine film of rust, even beating out bare metal guns that have not yet been treated. If all you want is darkened metal, don't let me talk you out of doing an entire gun with cold bluing; it looks better than paint. However, the real usefulness of cold bluing is touching up small areas, those little dings or worn spots that aren't bad enough to warrant a complete rebluing but need some coloring to keep them from becoming an embarrassment.
Every cold blue manufacturer has its own, highly guarded formula, and each solution has different qualities. Your two primary concerns in selecting a cold blue are color and durability. It depends on the circumstances as to which is the most important. For areas that are prone to wear--such as bolt handles, safety buttons and top levers--durability takes precedence. For the rest of the areas that aren't subjected to undue wear, a good color match is perhaps more important.
One of the easiest cold blue durability tests is to apply the blue to a piece of steel as per instructions, and then see how well it stands up to brisk rubbing with 000 steel wool. I've found that most of the established brands are pretty much equal in wear resistance. Most do not approach the durability of a good professional bluing job, but they hold up fairly well to moderate use. I have, however, encountered a few little-known newcomers that did not wear well at all; carding them with steel wool destroyed them.
