Tell me you're gun reblueing experiences

[jim in Anchorage]

Both good and bad. I have a pre war Winchester M70 and a S&W 1917 I would like reblued. Both guns have the fine pre war machining you would expect, with great attention to detail and extremely well done contours. Not the hurry up and make it roughness you see today.
Have you ever found a polisher/rebluer capable of duplicating the pre war factory polishing and not returning you a buffed out, rounded out gun with all the details gone?

 

[jimmyraythomason]

I do my own hot bluing so I have no personal experiences with other shops. Given the 2 arms you have I would suggest you use a company that specializes in restoring firearms and not a shop that just offers rebluing.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

There is a shop here in Anchorage called wild west guns that seems to specialize in difficult work. They make their own version of the Marlin 1895 in take down [called the co-pilot you may have heard of it] I may try them, but I want references.
I do not want my M70 looking like 4 hours in to a all day sucker.

 

[rcmodel]

This!
http://www.turnbullmfg.com/

Tell them what you want, and they will do it.
Not cheap, but it will come back looking as it did when it left the factory, if not better.

2nd. chose would be Fords.
http://www.fordsguns.com/

rc

 

[Cee Zee]

Even a hot blue job that isn't done all that well is better than rust. I had a shotgun hot blued about 20 years ago. It was rusting pretty bad. It's still in good shape now and it was never what you would call a great job on the bluing.

 

[CB900F]

Jimin;

I had a custom left-handed bolt gun in 6.5 Swede made a couple of years ago. Dennis Earhardt of the Frontier Gun Shop in Helena MT did the bluing. He perfectly, in my opinion, matched the gun to the Zeiss scope on it. Now then, fast forward to this early summer.

The foam in my hard gun case became saturated with a substance that took the blue in spots off the barrel of that gun. I was sick. I took the barreled action back to Dennis & asked him to re-blue. Once again he was able to make the match, and at a very
reasonable cost.

Dennis is in the guild of custom gun makers & I have seen his work to be beyond reproach in both books showing examples of his work and my own experience. I would suggest you at least invest the cost of a phone call & make contact with him.

900F

 

[herrwalther]

A friend of mine runs a gun store in Georgia and he recommends formula 44/40 from Midway for his cold blue jobs.

 

[Kingcreek]

I had an old Winchester 1890 rifle reblued. It took me a year and 30 phone calls to get it back and it was missing the rear sight and a couple screws when I finally got it. It took me most of another year to get the rear sight and screws replaced by the guy that did the bluing and by then the bluing was speckling. Not a good experience.

 

[Furncliff]

I had my local smith reblue a Marlin 39, he's not a recondition specialist but he did a job that would put the factory to shame.

The down side... it cost 100$ more than the rifle cost.

 

[jeepnik]

Found out a long time ago that I can't do as good a job as a professional. So, when one needs re-bluing, I send it to a professional. Worked out well so far.

 

[SunnySlopes]

I had a gunsmith who went by the name "Trapper Guns" do a high polish blue on a damaged Colt Python.

The ejector latch came back purple. I complained. He said send it back. I sent it back. He returned it. It was still purple.

I don't care about the excuses. I don't care that maybe his salts were old. I don't care that maybe the metal for the ejector latch was different than the metal in the frame and barrel.

All I cared about is that I did not asked for a "re-purple." I asked for, and paid for, a high polish "re-blue."

Also, the scratches in the gun? He didn't polish them out.

I never used him after that. It was disappointing because the guy had such a stellar reputation in the gun mags at the time.

It taught me a lesson. The lesson I learned was that if I have a gun that needs work, the best route is to sell the gun for ...... whatever, and then buy the gun I want.

I could tell you stories..............

 

[AethelstanAegen]

2nd. chose would be Fords.
http://www.fordsguns.com/

When I first received my Cimarron 1911, it had a flaw in the blueing, so so Cimarron had me send it to Ford's. They definitely did excellent work (it has a really nice high polish blue that mirrors the original commercial Colts) but it certainly took a very long time (many months) due to the high demand for Ford's service. So I can definitely recommend Ford's for the quality of their work but not for speed/ease of communication.

 

[CB900F]

JiminAlaska;

I'll also note that Dennis got the job done in two weeks, or less, in both cases.

900F

 

[Impureclient]

This post gives me hope. When people are paying three thousands dollars to refurbish a gun, it can't be that bad out there.

 

[Cee Zee]

It cost me about $40 to get my shotgun hot blued. It wasn't perfect but it has kept the rust away for 20 years or so. It should be done again but it's not as bad as it was when I had it done the last time. It's not even close to being that bad. It's just a cheap old Mossberg shotgun but it means a lot to me because it came down through my family.

 

[jacob2745]

Not to derail the thread but I have a rifle that I would like to get reblued. It doesn't have to be great. I would just like to get it looking like it did new. Anyone know anywhere within reasonable driving distance from SE Tn that offers affordable rebluing?

 

[303tom]

Here is a before & after of a old Western field 150 I picked up a while back...........

 

[Bubbles]

Here's the thing about hot rebluing/refinishing - doing it correctly takes time. A long time. There's a ton of prep that goes into it, and depending on the type of metal(s) in the firearm there's a different process and solution that should be used. My husband doesn't even do it himself, we have a guy come in and that's all he does for us, and he directs every step of it.

Also, before you even start do your research and if your gun is a collectable you need to get it restored, not simply reblued. A lot of shops will just do as you ask and reblue a collectable - and ruin its value in the process.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

This!
http://www.turnbullmfg.com/

Tell them what you want, and they will do it.
Not cheap, but it will come back looking as it did when it left the factory, if not better.

2nd. chose would be Fords.
http://www.fordsguns.com/

Thanks RC. Turnbulls is a lot more affordable than I thought. Since I've heard about them for 30 years, that's where my guns will go. A rust blue on a pre war M-70? Awesome.