bluing

[mnance]

Can someone give me a brief education in bluing. Not a "how to" but the different types and the pros and cons of each. I noticed that Rick Dunkerly uses nitre bluing a lot, so I got curious about the types and process.

Thanks.

[AUBE]

cold blue
pros- fast. safe to do(compared to hot blues, dont lick it or anything).
cons- i could never get a nice smooth finish over a decent sized area

hot blue
pros- gives a very nice deep blue color that lasts longer than cold blues.
cons- need some equipment (cheap for a small setup), the salts will eat right through your skin if youre not careful (yup, i wasnt careful) more expensive than cold blue to get started

nitre blue (from what ive read, no experience with it yet)
pros- gives a wide range of beautiful colors.
cons- with some of the colors the salts need to be heated 400+ degress which can compromise the temper of a blade depending on the desired rc.

Ed had a few good threads on nitre blue in his forum awhile back, u may want to search for them

[Chuck Burrows]

everybody seems to forget the classic slow aka rust bluing -

pros: beautiful deep, lustrous blue black, no high temps to compromise the temper (boiling water is as hot as it gets) - tougher wearing finish than any of the others - used on VERY high end firearms such as Holland and Holland - no high cost materials - Brownells sells a kit....

only con: labor intensive in that it can take a few days

[mnance]

thanks guys!