Rebluing Thompson Help Needed

[The_Twenties]

Hi everyone, i know i am banned from the forum but, hopefully with David permission, i still i wish to post the last update on my Early Savage 1928 Thompson rebluing project. As everyone know, i failed not one!

but three attempts to properly blue the S1928..the bluing process seems kinda easy, add salts,bring to temperature and blue, but it appears there is much more job underneath... So at the first try, i obtained a very

bad result, on the second attemp, the result was still kinda bad, the bluing was a very deep plum color, while on the third attemp (the last picture uploaded above) the bluing was almost good, pictures are not

showing properly what it looked like, but it was a light black/ deep brown bluing, with some darker stains here and there.. but somehow i was getting there!! crossing out the errors, i was able to understand how the

process have to be done! So since this is a deactivated gun i wanted this to be looking as

much good as possible, more like the early 1921's. I had a dummy 1928 barrel CNC milled to 1921 specs, and personally blued. keeping the temperature very high it resulted in a great

black coat. This have triggered in me the idea that i was messing up with the temperatures (used a much larger burner this time).. so stripped the upper once again, mixed another batch of salts, and let it

have a shower.. in the first minutes it was looking plum, it needed to stay boiling for about 1h.. and i was sure i was going to get it right this time.

there we go, took it out the bluing solution and..... i hope you like the pictures Funny thing is that on my first attemp i blued the frame in a lower temp bath, which resulted in a lightly blue/black coat, especially if

under direct lighting... the difference showing up between upper and frame is sort of awesome in my opinion! got a set of 1921 woods incoming and soon its going to be ready for display!

Im very happy of the new skin i gave to this beauty and hope the community appreciate too. it was not easy to start with absolutely no knowledge on the field and noone to guide you.

Edited August 28, 2017 by The_Twenties

[The_Twenties]

And then its only after the curing water displacement oil its wiped off that one can appreciate the gently brushed look

 

 

beginning

 

Edited August 28, 2017 by The_Twenties

[Adg105200]

Beautiful piece! It would look nice with a figured fancy grade walnut stock set on it.

 

Andrew

[RChapman]

On the author request, a last update ;

after playing for almost 10 times with very dangerous boiling salts, (each time getting closer to the proper result..after the images shown above, i played with it 3 more times) i was finally able to obtain a satisfactory finish on the S 1928. The solution was very simple... since it is chemistry and not cooking, the given instructions have to be followed accurately, very carefully controlling times, temperatures and solution concentration during the process. That lead to the result shown below. The upper material have to be taken in consideration too, the Thompsons upper receiver seems to be very sensible to any mistake during the bath, (often happens as i could understand with hardened steels) on the last two bluing attempts, even if the gun was looking dark, under direct lighting a red layer was showing up. Im happy i could finally get rid of it.

 

The item is now displayed in the gallery of a local Liberation museum

 

 

 

http://i64.tinypic.com/2hibce1.jpg

http://i66.tinypic.com/2lk4801.jpg

http://i68.tinypic.com/jhfxoo.jpg

Edited October 19, 2017 by RChapman