Traditional Colt Bluing (Charcoal Bluing) - Before and After
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- čas přidán 22. 12. 2022
- TRADITIONAL COLT BLUING, BEFORE AND AFTER
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Hey, this is Bryan at Brubaker Arms Manufacturing. Today we have a Colt 1902. It was brought in for full restoration.
The Colt 1902 is one of John Browning's nearly forgotten early Colts. Model 1902 was in production for just six years during Teddy Roosevelt's administration. This firearm is chambered in 38 rimless smokeless. While the 1902 Military proved itself to be slightly more popular than the Sporting line, and remained in low scaled production through the 1920s 1902, the Sporting line was shuttered in 1907. In all, less than 7000 or so of these interesting long slides were produced.
This firearm features an impressive six inch barrel which gives it a nearly nine inch overall length and a weight of 35 ounces. The ergonomics of the design are surprising though, in spite of the length and weight of the firearm.
But the most impressive part about holding this Colt 1902 Is the outstanding quality of steel that was used to produce it. The steel feel smooth to the touch and the consistency of it is very homogeneous.
This firearm had a substantial amount of filing and polishing done to it. You can see all the dings all over the slide and some on the frame there as well. The firearm was functional and it was brought in but it was just really in rough shape. So we took it in to refinish and re blue; it came back to the shop and looking it over, working on all the polishing, it came to mind that the that this pistol was originally charcoal blued the way Colt did their charcoal bluing and so if we were to fully restore it then we should charcoal blue instead of just rust blue it, which is why I think was originally decided on.
So the office and I convened and consulted with the client, and he was amenable to moving forward with charcoal bluing.
And here's the beautiful end result. We have a special charcoal bluing procedure which closely matches - or, as closely as document doubly possible matches - Colt’s process for their charcoal bluing. That's why it looks the way it does and why it has that blue-blue shine to the black. This type of bluing requires cooking all of the parts in the kiln or furnace with a particular type of charcoal and primer which is a type of oil and charcoal mix. This carbonizes and oxidizes the metal at the same time, which is what gives it that blue-black finish.
This pistol was polished to 400 before getting the Colt charcoal bluing finish.
As far as we're aware, Brubaker Arms Manufacturing is the only firearms facility that offers authentic Colt style charcoal blowing. There is nothing like it.
In this video, we familiarize our audience with the TRADITIONAL COLT BLUING that we do here at Brubaker Arms Manufacturing, Restoration Department.
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That is very pretty work. The oven and your attention to detail does it.
I like pre-oven mottled look of older guns(19th century), the stuff done by inexperienced or impatient workers. Teenage boys tended to do this work to learn patience and attention to detail, applying whale oil to searing hot steel is an attention keeper. Mistakes are blistering. I'm betting they weren't distracted too often.
So pre-1900 guns tend to have uneven finish with a kaleidoscope of blues. A lot of character by 20th century standards and substantially more character than 21st century arms.
I'm excluding 19th century custom shop guns. Those were done by experienced hands such as ours.
Anyway, beautiful work. That's good for another 100 years. This is the most durable finish outside modern stuff like Cerakote.
I have callused fingers from removing old charcoal blue. It gets deep into the steel in a way slow rust or other bluing never can.
really nice finish , lovely
do you use the charred bone and whiting powder?
Do you use a special charcoal? I’ve heard of people using fishtank charcoal. What’s it rubbed with when pulled from the charcoal?
Special charcoal, specially prepared. Interesting, I haven't heard that - that may be because of the size of the charcoal.
Just an oil rag - Ballistol or Ballistol & water displacing oil mix.
The traditional Colt method involved using "oakum" to rub down the steel between applications. As for the oil, you can still get sperm whale oil, by buying vintage cans of transmission fluid made before 1973. Because that's what transmission fluid back then was. I have a quart saved back for
just such a charcoal bluing experiment.
?
Doesnt turnbull do this?
they do
We can't speak to other people's processes on how they achieve their results. What we can do is point to our work in comparison to pristine original Colt bluing and other people's charcoal bluing. A solid charcoal bluing is a great finish, Colt bluing is on a whole different level.
Our Authentic Colt Bluing is the only process available that matches the original Colt bluing, which is why we have the audacity to call it "Authentic Colt Bluing", whilst everyone else refers to their bluing as "charcoal" bluing. Just because both processes involve charcoal, it doesn't mean that the results are the same.
The entire bibliography available out there regarding Colt bluing is approximately 5 pages consisting of two news articles separated by decades. Colt took the secret to the grave with him. We have spent 10+ years and a countless amount of time and money in re-developing the authentic Colt bluing process.