Cold Blue on Nickel

[sign216]

I want to cold blue some nickel parts. Are there any preparations that do a good job?

If none do a good job, I'll leave them nickel. Good nickel beats a bad blueing.

Joe

 

[BBBBill]

Bluing doesn't work on nickel. You'll need to strip the nickel first.

 

[sign216]

Thanks BBBill,
I heard that Birchwood Casey Super Blue can blue the hard-to-deal-with nickel steel alloys, so I was hoping it might be good for nickel plating, but I guess not.

Anyone have any other ideas?
Joe

 

[BBBBill]

Anyone have any other ideas?

B9 NICKEL STRIPPER - 2.5 LB

caswellplating.com

 

[Mizar]

Nickel-steel alloys are something a little bit different than the pure Nickel used in plating... For example, your kitchen sink is most probably made from some type of nickel-steel alloy.

 

[Jim Watson]

You probably can't blue your kitchen sink, either. For stainless steel purposes, blue is a stain by surface oxidation.

 

[sign216]

Billl,
Thanks the link to the nickel stripper.

I think I'll live w the nickel part. If my resolve crumbles, I'll get the nickel stripper ($33), but I'll hold off on that for now.

Watson and Mizar, thanks for chiming in. Looks like nickel is similar to stainless, at least regarding blueing.

 

[BBBBill]

Looks like nickel is similar to stainless

Basically stainless is carbon steel with added nickel and chromium. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's where it starts.

 

[JohnKSa]

Stainless steel is defined pretty much exclusively by its chromium content, but nickel is certainly a fairly common ingredient in stainless steels. But you can have stainless steels that don't contain nickel (e.g. 440C, AEB-L), and steel alloys with nickel (e.g. L6, 15N20) that aren't considered to be stainless steels.

 

[usaral63]

B9 NICKEL STRIPPER - 2.5 LB

caswellplating.com

Brownell's also markets a stripper, already in liquid form, no heating or agitation required. Just about double the Caswell price, but simpler. I've used it on a badly done M/1911 and it turned out exceptionally well.

 

[sign216]

Double the Casell price? This is just for some small parts. I can live w the nickel for now.