Dilute Gun Blue or buy more?

[erikmannie]

I have 3 quantity CXA tool holders that I need to gun blue. I have a new container of gun blue, but the amount of liquid in there wouldn’t even be enough to cover one of the tool holders.

I don’t mind doing the tool holders separately.

I am wondering if I should dilute the gun blue or wait/save up/buy a larger container of gun blue? I anticipate a fair amount of gun bluing in my future.

If I do dilute it, what would I dilute it with (I will Google this)?

EDIT: I see that one dilutes the cold blue solution with water, but I’m going to watch some YouTube videos because this process looks to be more involved than I had anticipated.

 

[erikmannie]

This is what I have. It is only 3 fluid ounces:

 

[erikmannie]

Watching this video, I can see that I can apply it on there with dabbing rather than soaking it.

Not surprisingly, I see that cleanliness is king.

 

[GeneT45]

Wipe it on, rather than submerging. Heat the workpiece - I like to boil them - that does a final degrease and the latent heat removes the water. Smear with your blue, let sit several minutes, card (brush off the white crud) and repeat until satisfied. Then toss the part in oil. I use used motor oil and it's never done me wrong.

GsT - Master of the poor-man's-black-oxide finish.

Edit: clarity

 

[pontiac428]

Birchwood-Casey Super Blue sucks. I ain't got the energy to tell the story, but it's junk. Use Brownell's Oxpho Blue instead.

All cold blue solutions will retain enough strength to work well when thinned with water. Adding water will not affect the pH until you add a lot of it, like 10:1, so as long as there's enough ions in solution to complete the job (there are) it will still work.

Phosphoric acid, selenous acid, copper, and nickel are all there is to it, so you can water it down if needed. Temperature and contact time are the real key factors, as long as the bluing solution is in stoichiometric excess (it is by design).

 

[Aaron_W]

Here is a blog for bluing using a home brew method. I saved this to try it out, but haven't actually done it yet.

Quick rust bluing

 

[erikmannie]

Thank you for all the responses. I’m doing this first thing tomorrow morning, and I will post pictures of how it turns out.

 

[xr650rRider]

I bought all of these and Perma Blue worked the best on 12L14 and A36 mild steel. It was darkest from first coat and Oxpho and tetra never got as dark as it was from first coat. Heated, not heated, didn't make much difference. Not really answering OP's question about diluting and I'd think it would work better full strength. I much prefer if the part allows it, to heat with propane torch until it just turns blue and oil quench it. Will last longer than the chemical blue and usually looks better. Stops rusting.

 

[pontiac428]

I'm on my third bottle of Oxpho Gel this year. Love the stuff, one application does it and two if you need perfection. Burnish the gel into the work with a natural wool applicator swab until the gel turns green. Wipe, oil, and max darkening develops in 24 hours. Wiping has a technique to it, too, try as much as you can to remove it in one pass then buff lightly with clean flannel and oil.

 

[mickri]

The folks on the accuratereloading gunsmithing forum like this stuff. https://www.rustblue.com/ I have never used it. Going to try it out on some future projects.