High polish on just top of 1896 receiver?

[ssgross]

slow rust bluing works great over existing bluing to even out and darken. With a nice soft carding wheel, you can easily get the results like what you see on the main receiver around the serial. Any evidence of light surface rust is eliminated when slow rust bluing, as long as the etching from prior rust is no deeper than, say, 400 grit sanding or so. Having refinished an 1898 krag receiver to build mine from scratch, I can tell you that the case-hardened parts can be a pain, even if completely prepping the surface. This is why your refinished side plate looks different then your refinished receiver, with what looks like a little "mottling" underneath. When slow bluing my side plate, I tried multiple times to get it to match my newly finished receiver. Finally, I figured out the trick - sanding to 400 grit (like the rest of the metal), but then wiping down evenly with 10% muriatic acid for ~10 minutes.

FWIW, I think that cleaning up the finish over top of existing finish works much better with slow rust bluing then hot bluing. The layer of magnetite is typically much thicker with slow rust bluing, and so carding with a nice soft steel wheel can blend over most blemishes.