blued it and now it's rusting

[big_al]

One of my dad's old shotguns was in his barn and needed refinishing badly. So I rubbed the rust off mostly with steel wool, and then used some Birchwood Casey Super Blue on it that I got from a local gun dealer. It turned out real good totally blacking out the metal after a few coats. Then I rubbed it down with some gun oil and propped the barrel up in the corner in the house. It's been a week now and it's already starting to rust again. If anyone can tell me how to correct this I would appreciate it very much.

Al

[jack404]

first off the prep for the rifle may not have been as good as you wished , here i'd redo it again

only way to get it all with the birchwood kits you HAVE to oilm it after the works done theres a pad with a oiled cloth in it , use that its quite good let that sit a hour then regular gun oil all over and let sit a day or two then reassemble to ensure coverage and avoid a repeat of whats happening now

[JLA]

After bluing with a cold blue you have to clean the remaining cold blue off. Bluing solutions is basically controlled metal corrosion. I never had good luck with the brichwood caseys crap. I always liked Brownells Oxpho Blue or G96

[goofy]

Cold blue is just a surface coloring you have to get ALL the rust off before using it.If any rust is still there it will start to rust again.
If you want it to stay blued get it hot blued, cold blue should be used for touch up only and even if you get the prep done right cold blue will not last long at all.
Mike

[ozo]

This was highly mistreated .....
Took a brass brush and wore it out on her.
Coated it with SBGO and wipe her each month or so
and use her a lot [lotsa fondling].
No new rust in a year.
Some may think she needs re-blued,
I see her character.......

[JLA]

No way id reblue that sixgun Ozo. I love that wild west patina look.

[ShawnDow]

OZO... case harden color the wheel gun!
As for the Birchwood...I have had some success with it... Prep-work is the key.. and even then, most of the time... just when i'm about to give up with it.. i strip it all down again and do it one more time... holly cow... it works for the most part (kinda uneven)... one day im just going to call goofy and send my stuff to him for a hot salts bath! Its not worth my headache for cold bluing with Birchwood.

[bluesea112]

The only way to permanently stop rust is to treat it with ospho, which is phosphoric acid. You can buy Ospho at any hardware store. It will be a green liquid or greenish blue liquid. Use steel wool to remove as much rust as you can. Then pour Ospho on the metal. Let is sit on the metal for several minutes and then pour some more on the metal a second time. Let the second treatment sit for several minutes. Any rust that is left on the metal will turn black or completely disappear. Now rinse the metal with extremely hot water and let dry. You can lightly rub steel wool over the metal one last time, but try not to remove the black coating left by the Ospho. These black areas help to protect the metal and will blend in once you apply cold blue. The last step is to apply cold blue. Your gun should never rust again.

The reason Brownell's cold blue works so well is because it contains Ospho (Phosphoric Acid). By using straight Ospho first, before using cold blue, you get a little better protection.

Phosphoric Acid actually changes the chemical traits of the metal surface to make it immune to rust formation. The only purpose of the cold blue is to turn the entire surface black so all the metal is the same color. The cold blue does not protect the metal, as it is simply a colorant. The phosphoric acid treated metal can be left just as it is without being colored or painted and it will never rust again.