Hot Salt Bluing \ Color Case Hardening \ Fire Blue \ Nickel, Silver and Gold Plating \ Slow Rust Bluing \ Stainless Steel Bluing \ Mil-spec Parkerizing \ Anodizing \ French Gray
If you are looking to add a unique finishing touch of color to your firearm, fire
bluing is the answer. Although it doesn't wear as well as hot salt bluing, fire
bluing (also known as nitre blue) creates a beautiful array of colors to personalize
your design.
Unlike conventional hot salt bluing, nitre blue can produce a lustrous range of
colors from a pale yellow "straw" color like the older Luger parts to
a bright peacock or "fire blue" finish used on Colt and Smith & Wesson
revolvers of the 1850's through the 1930's.
The process involves immersion of the part into a hot liquid potassium nitrate,
which generates an evenly colored finish. Like all bluing processes, the most important
step is metal preparation. The metal surfaces are block sanded to remove all imperfections
and then polished to a mirror shine just before the bluing process, which avoids
oxidation of the steel. Although Fire Blue creates a lustrous finish, it is not
as durable as conventional hot salt bluing, turning a patina color with wear.
Fire Blue yields a gorgeous appearance whether it's the entire firearm, or just
a splash of color with the hammer, trigger, pins and screws, which look great next
to Color Case Hardening or high-polished Nickel Plating.
Platinum Blue, a process very similar to nitro blue, yields a translucent platinum blue color that is achieved through a consistent heat of 650-720 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the parts have reached the desired temperature and color, they are removed from the molten solution and quenched in sperm oil.
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Luger restored fire blue with straw parts
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