Re-doing old shotgun, cold blue or cerakote?

steveh326 · Nov 28, 2021

I have my grandad's old 20 gauge bolt shotgun. Gun is worth very little monetarily, but very much in sentimental value to me.

Wood just needed some cleaning, but the barrel was badly rusted and most of the original bluing was gone. I have everything stripped to white and the rust removed. My original plan was to just cold blue it using Oxpho blue. Now I am second guessing my plan, and thinking about spending the $ to cerakote it for better durability.

Any arguments for or against either finish? I am truly torn on which way to go with it.

I already have a bolt action 20 gauge from my OTHER grandfather, thinking about passing this one on to my SIL when I get it back together.

Cuttyfunk · Nov 28, 2021

I refinished a lightly rusted 1100. I sprayed it in duracoat and was overall happy with the finish. Not as expensive as ceracoat but it covered the pitting better then bluing.

rseymorejr · Nov 28, 2021

On an older gun like that my personal preference would be bluing. Maybe a professional hot blue job.

teratos · Nov 28, 2021

Rust bluing can give a beautiful finish to rival the best hot bluing, if you are patient.

Biggfoot44 · Nov 28, 2021

Big difference in $$ between Oxpho and CeraKote .

Professional grade cold blue won't make it look brand new , but can make 100% improvement over how it looks now . And take durability with a grain of salt . Once you have to Oxpho, you can easily touch up once a year or whatever .

Twas me , I'd try the Oxpho ( or preferable T-4 ) and see if they results were sufficiently pleasing . If not , then proceede with Cerakote or Dura Coat .

pre64hunter · Nov 28, 2021

I say Oxpho-Blue

I had an H&R single shot 12 gauge very similar situation. I used the Oxpho-Blue. It came out very nice. Actually, I did it a few years ago, it's holding up very well, so well that I forgot I did it.
If you cold blue it and you don't like it, you can easily buff it off and cerakote it later. If the cold blue wears off some you can easily redo it. If you use Oxpho-Blue and add to it again a few weeks later, it'll come out even better.
I found different steel will take different cold blue differently. Oxpho-Blue seems to get darker as you dry it off then lightly buff it, this is a necessary step. T-4 Dichopan sometimes works better on some metals if you buff it with steel wool while still wet. Sometimes the Dichopan will turn spotty purple after you think you have it good, just rub it again, it'll usually come out fine.
I use both, sometimes one works better than the other but if I only used one kind it would be Oxpho-blue and for a big job like a whole barrel definitely Oxpho-blue.
I wouldn't spend the money on Cerakote, you're turning into something else not restoring it.

Biggfoot44 · Nov 28, 2021

My side by side testing always favored T-4 for more even coloring , but I didn't try every possible steel and heat treatment .

Either Oxpho or T-4 is far better than any mass market cold blue .

Once upon a time I did a complete T-4 blueing on a 0% finish S&W , that then had daily holster wear . 10 minute of touch up every cpl months .

VRC Racing · Nov 28, 2021

potassium nitrate (stump remover) bluing works really well and can be done at home. Biggest challenge is making a fixture to hold the barrel and heating it. Lots of info on the interweb.

I did a pistol many years ago and its still looks nice. The finish is more black than blue.

-Russ

Melnic · Nov 28, 2021

My thought is blue on any way over anything else That makes it not look as it originally did.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

steveh326 · Dec 2, 2021

gonna try my hand at cold blueing it. 1st time doing this, but I figure if it doesn't work out can always strip and get professional help. waiting on Oxpho blue and Van's blue to show up to see which one works best on this metal.

fyi, maybe this is common knowledge, but was new discovery to me...
soaking parts in Evapo-rust not only removed the rust, but also stripped the existing blueing without harsh chemicals or abrasives... which was great for what I wanted. Makes sense to me as blueing is just a controlled rust treatment.

steveh326 · Dec 11, 2021

got it done and back together today. I am very happy with end result. grandpap's old shotgun has a new lease on life.

p.s. - apparently grandpap repaired the bolt using a nail instead of a roll pin. use what ya got I guess. I didn't have the heart to swap it out as it's part of the history, so I just blued the bent over nail...lol

Neutron · Dec 11, 2021

Nice! Love to see old guns preserved.

Eye hart 762 · Dec 11, 2021

steveh326 said:
got it done and back together today. I am very happy with end result. grandpap's old shotgun has a new lease on life.

p.s. - apparently grandpap repaired the bolt using a nail instead of a roll pin. use what ya got I guess. I didn't have the heart to swap it out as it's part of the history, so I just blued the bent over nail...lol

That turned out phenomenal. Nice job

toppkatt · Dec 11, 2021

I've found Van's seems to make a better (darker and more blue-black) result than Ox-pho which seems to turn out more purple to my eyes. Of course, that might, also, have had to do with the steel alloy of the barrel I was attempting to blue.
But, which ever you used came out looking nice. Congrats, way to keep Gramp's legacy alive.

rseymorejr · Dec 11, 2021

steveh326 said:
got it done and back together today. I am very happy with end result. grandpap's old shotgun has a new lease on life.

p.s. - apparently grandpap repaired the bolt using a nail instead of a roll pin. use what ya got I guess. I didn't have the heart to swap it out as it's part of the history, so I just blued the bent over nail...lol

That looks great. Now get out there and shoot it!

Harrys · Dec 12, 2021

steveh326 said:
I have my grandad's old 20 gauge bolt shotgun. Gun is worth very little monetarily, but very much in sentimental value to me.

Wood just needed some cleaning, but the barrel was badly rusted and most of the original bluing was gone. I have everything stripped to white and the rust removed. My original plan was to just cold blue it using Oxpho blue. Now I am second guessing my plan, and thinking about spending the $ to cerakote it for better durability.

Any arguments for or against either finish? I am truly torn on which way to go with it.

I already have a bolt action 20 gauge from my OTHER grandfather, thinking about passing this one on to my SIL when I get it back together.

A bud stripped an old single shot 16 gage down to bare metal. He did something quite unique. He used a high temperature ceramic primer and ceramic coating which he used on motorcycle exhaust pipes. He tried this because the ceramic coating lasted for years on the bike exhaust pipes. He used black with a white ceramic primer. It came out flat black and semi smooth. The only thing is that there 3 different baking temperatures with the final bake at 600 degrees for 30 minutes. He used his BBQ grill as he did for the bike exhaust pipes to bake the barrel. He put a wire though the barrel and suspended it on each end in the grill. It looked really nice, and it produced a tough no chipping and non-rusting coating.

Busa · Dec 12, 2021

Looks good. I did a similar job on an old Mossberg and it has held up for 30 years.

Melnic · Dec 12, 2021

so, which cold blue brand did you use?

steveh326 · Dec 15, 2021

Melnic said:
so, which cold blue brand did you use?

I mostly used Van's on everything. as I recall, there was one small part that was stubborn, and I used oxpho on that. I really liked the Van's application method of keeping the part wet until desired color is reached vs many individual coats of Oxpho. I heated the parts prior to blueing. some of the small parts I just dropped into a cup of van's and let them soak for a couple mins and that worked great.

I made a trough and lined it with contractor trash bag to soak the barrel and other parts. Used Evapo-rust. Initially did that to dissolve the large rust spots on the barrel, then realized it stripped the blueing also... had a 'duh' moment when realized blueing was a rust treatment so then it made sense to me.

steveh326 · Dec 15, 2021

Harrys said:
A bud stripped an old single shot 16 gage down to bare metal. He did something quite unique. He used a high temperature ceramic primer and ceramic coating which he used on motorcycle exhaust pipes. He tried this because the ceramic coating lasted for years on the bike exhaust pipes. He used black with a white ceramic primer. It came out flat black and semi smooth. The only thing is that there 3 different baking temperatures with the final bake at 600 degrees for 30 minutes. He used his BBQ grill as he did for the bike exhaust pipes to bake the barrel. He put a wire though the barrel and suspended it on each end in the grill. It looked really nice, and it produced a tough no chipping and non-rusting coating.

Duracoat was my plan-B if my attempt at reblue didn't work out.

Re-doing old shotgun, cold blue or cerakote?

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