View Single Post
  #6   Report Post  
Stan Schaefer
 
Posts: n/a
Default STAINLESS STEEL Blueing (or blackening)

my_2¢ wrote in message . ..
Does anyone know how to "blue" or blacken stainless steel? I know that
from a cold chemical standpoint a mixture of Selenium Dioxides and
Copper Sulfate is the standard "cold blue" formula for carbon
steel....but how does one darken stainless? With chromium in the steel
the copper method seems useless and an acid preferable....has anyone
used chemical methods in stainless with success? What works?


This has been posted before but Brownells has stainless steel
bluing/blackening chemicals. If you've got a one-off, try to find a
gunsmith that's already got the setup, it takes some messing with to
get it working right and you really don't want to invest in a bluing
setup just for a one-off, not to mention the cost of neutralizing the
stuff once you're done with it. There used to be black chrome plating
as well, haven't seen anyone advertising that in awhile. An
alternative would be a powder-coat job in your choice of colors. A
method used in the past on Winchester stainless steel rifle barrels
was to electroplate the barrel with pure iron and then blue that. Or
you could just go get a wally-world can of flat-black spray paint and
have at it. That's about all I'm aware of.

Stan