Redneck oil blackening

[Rumpelhardt]

But it worked
The magazine in my Long Branch frankly looked like crap so I decided to see If I could fix it.
I cleaned the magazine with a fine wire brush in my Dremel tool then cleaned it with acetone. I put my gas grill as high as it would go plopped on the magazine and let it bake. I then put it carefully into a coffee can full of used motor oil until it stopped boiling. After removing it from the oil I cleaned it with brake cleaner then oiled it up in good shape with Breakfree. Probably not the recommended method but it was what I had on hand and it came out quite nice particularly when compared to what I started with.

Information

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[mattgunguy]

picture please

[Rumpelhardt]

Here you go. I think I might give it another try to see if it will darken it further. Got to wait for the wife to go out first though.
before
After

As a side note. What appears to be thin blackening on the bottom edge of the second picture is actually just a reflection. It turned out fairly even in color

[mattgunguy]

thank you. I know what I'm doing tonight. I'll show ya how mine turns out.

[Peter Laidler]

We used oil blacking or carbon blacking as a matter of course. We weren't so careful though! Clean the parts down, get rid of the burrs etc etc then get bright red under a hot axe (Oxy burner) then dunk in old oil. Wait to cool and repeat the process several times. THere was another method we used in Australia and NZ called 'blanket blacking' where instead of dunking the part in oil several times, just wipe it with an old woolen blanket. That did the same trick

Anyone used blanket blacking?

[Rumpelhardt]

Probably a good idea to remove the spring and follower if your doing a magazine. I don't think the spring would react well to the heat.

[muffett.2008]

Although oil bluing is pretty much a usefull tool for small machine parts, it has a tendancy to soften and warp thin plate.
Rifle magazines may become distorted and the lips will have a tendency to straighten, giving feed problems. Unless the metal is pre hardened, you will have ongoing problems.
A poor mans blueing compound can be created useing prilled ammonium nitrate, mix with water and boil in a STAINLESS STEEL container, ignore the brown sediment seperating out, this is just the clay additive used to bind it into pellets. Continue to boil off until the mix begins to crystalize on the side of the pot, immerse components and stir around until the colour is of your choosing, remove and wash crystalized coating from item, redo if not satisfied, then soft polish item with fine steel wool.
WARNING this solution is caustic, keep well ventilated, (not in the kitchen) and do not let the solution boil out, excess heat will caused the metal to be corroded. The mix you are trying to achieve is 66/33 i.e 66% nitrate to 33% water. If you want to keep the solution, store it in a clear plastic bottle, as it cools the crystals will seperate and solidify, they can be re dissolved when needed. Treat this mix as you would any other bluing solution, if not completely neautralised, blooming will occur. So now you have one of our closely kept trade secrets, remember, ammonium nitrate is now a controlled substance, I'd hate to see you locked up as a terrorist.

[Brian Dick]

Did you have the rifle reblued too or do it yourself?

[Rumpelhardt]

Did you have the rifle reblued too or do it yourself?

I posted this before but it explains the bluing on the rifle.


Bob's Stuff and Nonsense

[Rumpelhardt]

Although oil bluing is pretty much a usefull tool for small machine parts, it has a tendancy to soften and warp thin plate.
Rifle magazines may become distorted and the lips will have a tendency to straighten, giving feed problems. Unless the metal is pre hardened, you will have ongoing problems.

Thanks for the warning. I don't think that my gas grill got the part hot enough to do this kind of damage. I was originally skeptical that it would get the magazine hot enough to work at all but it has done the job. It still works great after two trips through. You are most likely right using a torch or some other methods that would get the part red hot. I have copied your recipe for future reference and thank you for it. I will give it a try.