Cold Bluing

[MrLongbeard]

Anyone done it, got any does n don'ts?

Think I'm gonna give it a whirl on my radiator guard instead of buying a can of rattle black.

[G.P]

Never heard of it!

Pray do tell?

[MrLongbeard]

Chemical treatment of steel to prevent corrosion.
The norm is hot bluing and is used primarily for firearms, cold bluing can be done at home, not as durable as hot bluing but for my purposes should suffice.

[MrLongbeard]

My post was before the YouTube links were enabled.

[Brommo]

If you take the url from the address bar at top of page rather than video your video will get imbedded in the post.

never heard of it before - very interesting

[Cousin Jack]

Bluing on firearms looks good, can be done at home, but IME needs very careful treatment to stay looking good. Leave a blued gun with a trace of moisture on it and it will rust! Leave a sweaty fingerprint on it and it will mark the surface. Most guns get carefully wiped down with a (very slightly) oily duster before being put away in a dry place. The mind boggles at how bluing is going to cope on a motorcycle.

[Horse]

Cold (and wet) browning?

[Cousin Jack]

Cold (and wet) browning?

That is another problem!

'Bluing' is actually a special sort of oxidation. Modern commercial stuff is blue-black. Old stuff (and home stuff too) can sometimes turn out as browning rather than bluing. Same process, same issues, just different colour.

The common version of browning is VERY easy to achieve.