Hot oil blueing first time

[Daddycaddie67]

I just had two brakes threaded and wanted them blued so I figured I would try the oil blueing method. The brakes are carbon steel. These Harrells brakes are excellent but they were pretty rough after the smith finished. I deburred them and cleaned with alcohol being careful to wear surgical gloves so as not to leave finger prints.
I had a gallon of air tool oil on the shelf and used that to quench with. I set up a battery screw driver in a vise with a socket driver attached to help maintain an even heat of the brakes. I let the first one heat up till it was “grey” and not changing color any longer and in the oil it went, the second one was quenched when it was an even blue/purple and then was quenched. It’s hard to tell from the light but the first one is a little darker and the second a nice blue/ purple color after sitting in the oil for about 30 minutes.
Tomorrow I think I’ll clean them up and do it again. All in all I think they turned out pretty good.
Thoughts? Feedback? Thanks for looking. E

 

[Preacher]

Harrells brakes are a bit rough @ $30.00 but they they sure turn out nice in a oil quench...

 

[Gun Smith]

Very nice job Daddycaddy. Looks great!
I've heat / oil blued a lot of small gun parts. It's a great way to get a nice blue color on some steels.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

This method is actually pretty good but I've found that really dirty, used diesel motor oil best...and cheapest. Lol! I think the carbon helps, fwiw.

 

[zeke06]

Looks great. I've found that this method is not as durable as hot salt bluing or rust bluing but if that's the case it's easy enough for you to re do.

 

[Uncle Bruce]

I just had two brakes threaded and wanted them blued so I figured I would try the oil blueing method. The brakes are carbon steel. These Harrells brakes are excellent but they were pretty rough after the smith finished. I deburred them and cleaned with alcohol being careful to wear surgical gloves so as not to leave finger prints.
I had a gallon of air tool oil on the shelf and used that to quench with. I set up a battery screw driver in a vise with a socket driver attached to help maintain an even heat of the brakes. I let the first one heat up till it was “grey” and not changing color any longer and in the oil it went, the second one was quenched when it was an even blue/purple and then was quenched. It’s hard to tell from the light but the first one is a little darker and the second a nice blue/ purple color after sitting in the oil for about 30 minutes.
Tomorrow I think I’ll clean them up and do it again. All in all I think they turned out pretty good.
Thoughts? Feedback? Thanks for looking. E

I really like the second one. Almost a little like a saco color.

 

[swd]

Heat bluing is easy and fun to play around with. Not very durable. We used to use a bullet casting pot with nitre salts. It’s easy to control with a thermometer and the heat knob for the color you want and you can let it soak at the temp you want for straw yellow to violets to shades of blue. Just remember if you’re doing a hardened part at some of the higher temps you’re tempering the part. Once you go from dark blue to pale blue many carbon steels are getting softer. Sometimes a lot softer.

 

[Daddycaddie67]

Heat bluing is easy and fun to play around with. Not very durable. We used to use a bullet casting pot with nitre salts. It’s easy to control with a thermometer and the heat knob for the color you want and you can let it soak at the temp you want for straw yellow to violets to shades of blue. Just remember if you’re doing a hardened part at some of the higher temps you’re tempering the part. Once you go from dark blue to pale blue many carbon steels are getting softer. Sometimes a lot softer.

Thanks for that suggestion, I’ll keep that in mind. E

 

[Sniperhandle]

The Old Krag's were oil blued.