Rust Bluing Problem

[jjh501]

I made my first attempt at rust bluing an old Remington shotgun, but instead of a nice deep finish, I got more of a matte finish. Where did I go wrong? I used a Rust Compound from Brownells. Any advice would be appreciated before my next attempt.

[Pete44ru]

What did the surface look like, prior to bluing ?

It could be a simple as that it wasn't brought to a high enough polish, first.

But, there's a lot of other variables, too - like metal and solution temps/humidity, saturation duration, carding methods, etc, etc.

.

[Pisgah]

Well, to tell the truth, unless you go to extremes polishing -- and even then -- rust bluing has more of a satiny matte look to it than most other bluing methods. To me, that along with it's look of depth and richness are what is attractive about it to my eye. I have a friend who owns 75 fine side-by-side shotguns, many of which are rust-blued (and high-grade), and it is simply not a very shiny finish.

[Chuck 100 yd]

What Pisgah said. +1
The metal is converted to rust in the process and that rust is turned black by the boiling. Although the rust is only a tiny part of 1 thousandth of an inch thick it does dull the finish a little.
I don`t polish my parts finer than 400 grit due to this. Any finer finish is a waste of time and may not take the blue due to its resistance to rusting just like a mirror polished knife blade resists rusting more than a dull one will.

[jjh501]

Thanks for the info. I thought I had adequately polished the metal prior to rusting. However, it was in pretty rough shape to begin with. Thanks, again.

[J Miller]

jjh501,

Here is some info I found over on TRF. You may already know this but I thought I'd post it just in case:
http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=55723

Joe

[KCSO]

Actually 220 or 330 at most is about as fine as you want to go for rust bluing. Is is a matte finish and will never be as shiny as say Colt factory blue. If you rry and make it better by polishing the metal more the rust process won't work as well and when it finally does rust you still get matte.