Anyone ever build a semi-finished percussion revolver kit?

[MillersvilleProf]

A good alternative to a caustic hot dip blue is the old Belgium Bluing. You can purchase this at Brownells and it can be done on the kitchen stove with a suitable tank large enough to boil the water and gun parts. It will give a nice soft blue which is a close match to the finishes used by companies such as Remington in the 19th century. Personally I don't like the hot dip blues as they look too metallic and don't replicate the original finishes well unless you do a bead blast ahead of time.

For future reference try to avoid using any type of buffing wheel when polishing gun parts like this. The problem with a buffing wheel is that it will (without extreme care) round edges over that are supposed to be sharp, dish out screw holes, and when used too aggressively leave a rippled surface. If the surface is round and you have already pre-polished it by hand a buffing wheel can be used to good effect to lightly (and I do mean lightly) hit the surface but even there I find sandpaper and appropriate blocks can do as good a job. Polishing can be a slow, tedious process, but there aren't too many shortcuts that will still produce a quality job. Do the initial prep with a few good, fine cut files to remove tooling marks, and stampings and finish with a good wet/dry sandpaper, blocks cut to contour to surfaces for backing, and a lot of elbow grease. Work your way up from about 120 to 400 for a good professional looking job. Some go higher, but this has generally been my stopping point. I add a couple pieces of Scotchbrite to rub out the sanding marks when I am done and let me know what areas still need more attention.

 

[Aaron_W]

Thank you, I think this sounds like it could be fun. I have no experience bluing metal, but this could be a good opportunity to learn. Also sounds like an opportunity to work on hand finishing skills.

I went ahead and ordered one, I'll start a post when I begin work on it.

 

[Toolmaker51]

re bluing; Smith & Wesson used [supposedly] carbonaceous gases to produce Carbona deep blue. If you see an old S&W, examine it with a high intensity pen light, rather spectacular. This is not color case hardening; components were not directly subjected to carbon.
Colt Royal Blue was applying fish oil to parts after heating to exactly right temperature.
Few other firearms had such exotic processes, heated salt baths were de rigueur. A 150 years later, no one recalls a custom named bluing from ANY other manufacturers; Browning, Savage, Mossberg, Remington, Winchester, Walther, Beretta, Krieghoff, H&H, Purdey, Parker, Ferlach Guild. . .

 

[jbolt]

I built one 40 years ago...man I hated typing that! .45 cal. Fun to build and shoot. I agree with the post above about avoiding a buffing wheel. There are a few places on mine I over buffed but hey I was only 16 at the time.

It has not been shot in many years since my club does not allow black powder. It is due for a refinish.



The most fun I have had with black powder is a .45 cal mini naval deck cannon. It has a rifled barrel and will consistently hit one gallon milk jugs at 100 yards. I mail ordered it when I was 14. Back then no one ever questioned me when buying black powder and cannon fuse at the local gun store.

First time me and my friend fired it we didn't know what to expect since there were no instructions on firing. I had asked the gun store owner on loading and he told me we couldn't blow it up no matter the charge as long as we set the ball tight to the powder, air pockets make bombs.

So we guessed on the powder charge. We charged it, set the ball and patch, lit the fuse and quickly hurried out of harms way. BOOM! Big beautiful cloud of smoke. It was then we realized the cannon had disappeared off the bench. We had failed to consider the recoil would exceed the weight of the cannon. After a frenzied search while thinking we would get yelled at by the range master we found it halfway across the path behind the firing line. After that it was half covered in sand bags when fired.