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A bunch of years ago my wife and kids gave me a CVA Kentucky Pistol kit. I spent months building that gun, and when attempting to apply bluing the first time I did a pretty poor job and left streaks and a big fingerprint in the finish.

It seems to me that I used foil, lemon juice, and vinegar to take off the finish.

It sat, unfinished but polished to a mirror sheen, on the living room coffee table for many months until after I had consulted with several people about bluing (Birchwood Casey's instructions were somewhat sub-optimal) and decided to attempt it again. The result the second time was very gratifying, but if it were not for the regular polishing that leaving it bare metal entailed, I would have been satisfied to leave it that way. The gun very rapidly developed a light patina of rust, and oiling and waxing it left a finish that was not as shiny.

An idea that I have not tried...I have not had the desire to polish anything on my firearms but...

At one time, I had a job manufacturing plumbing tools (water meter lid keys, curb keys, etc.)

The pipe probes we dipped the handles in a plasti-dip type substance. The shafts could not be painted by OSHA code but he raw square steel would rust in a half a heartbeat. We would use a rag to apply a product called Penetrol to the steel. It was originally developed for use on boat hulls as a seealer. We would use a wire wheel to scour the steel before applying the Penetrol. ANY rust whatsoever, even the stuff you cannot see, will turn black as the Penetrol oxidizes the rust so you need to make quadrupally sure you clean it extremely well or you will have little black specks all over. The Penetrol will penetrate the pores of the metal and seal it, not just coat the surface. Once applied, there is no going back whatsoever to my knowledge. It will not damage the metal and scratches will have no effect on the corrosion protection. What it will to to a polished finish? I have no idea.

This is just my two cents that may not even be worth that much...

RogueUSMC wrote:An idea that I have not tried...I have not had the desire to polish anything on my firearms but...

At one time, I had a job manufacturing plumbing tools (water meter lid keys, curb keys, etc.)

The pipe probes we dipped the handles in a plasti-dip type substance. The shafts could not be painted by OSHA code but he raw square steel would rust in a half a heartbeat. We would use a rag to apply a product called Penetrol to the steel. It was originally developed for use on boat hulls as a seealer. We would use a wire wheel to scour the steel before applying the Penetrol. ANY rust whatsoever, even the stuff you cannot see, will turn black as the Penetrol oxidizes the rust so you need to make quadrupally sure you clean it extremely well or you will have little black specks all over. The Penetrol will penetrate the pores of the metal and seal it, not just coat the surface. Once applied, there is no going back whatsoever to my knowledge. It will not damage the metal and scratches will have no effect on the corrosion protection. What it will to to a polished finish? I have no idea.

This is just my two cents that may not even be worth that much...

Penetrol. Good stuff and it seems that very few know about it. Ive restored many faded fiberglass boats with Penetrol (hard work) It's kinda like duct tape, it serves many purposes. Ive even used it to seal clay pots and waterproof canvass.

Penetrol® is a free-flowing, low-odor, high quality, penetrating oil paint additive that compensates for the adverse effects that weather and surface conditions have on paints and primers. It also helps improve flow and eliminate brush marks.

Increases adhesion, penetration and flow of oil-based paints and varnishes
Restores luster to faded, weathered fiberglass
Diminishes lap and brush marks
Helps prevent peeling, blistering and rust

http://www.menards.com/main/paint/clean ... c-8161.htm

As to the original question, Evapo-Rust will remove bluing (which is a form of rust) nicely without affecting anything else. Just make sure the finish is actual bluing and not a coating

Simply soak it in vinegar to remove blueing. No scrubbing is needed.

If an old, neglected, blued shotgun barrel has some minimal rust spots on it, is there a preferred way to [try to] clean it-up without removing the bluing?

bluing is not a color its a metal treatment
designed in part to reduce rust

if you remove it you will need to coat it with something else or you will have a RUST coating before too long

TomsTXCHL wrote:If an old, neglected, blued shotgun barrel has some minimal rust spots on it, is there a preferred way to [try to] clean it-up without removing the bluing?

A couple of years ago, I cleaned up my father's Browning Sweet Sixteen shotgun. It had a few little spots of rust, none larger than a pinhead. All I used was Eezox on a patch and all the spots rubbed right out. None of them left any mark at all behind. It looks like it never happened.

Of course, YMMV.

Back to the original question... I have refinished a number of old guns. The best way I've found to remove old bluing is Muratic acid. It works very quickly. Wash the acid off as soon as the blue is removed using cold water. In each of my refinish jobs, I've reblued the gun using a 19 th century rust blue process. It is slow but the results are very nice.

Remember - bluing is a form of oxidation on the metal that protects the metal from rust. The bluing essentially per-rusts the metal forming an oxidation barrier.

kragluver wrote:Back to the original question... I have refinished a number of old guns. The best way I've found to remove old bluing is Muratic acid. It works very quickly. Wash the acid off as soon as the blue is removed using cold water. In each of my refinish jobs, I've reblued the gun using a 19 th century rust blue process. It is slow but the results are very nice.

Remember - bluing is a form of oxidation on the metal that protects the metal from rust. The bluing essentially per-rusts the metal forming an oxidation barrier.

the original question was removing bluing to make the gun "stainless"
Its not possible nor recommended so providing directions seems less than helpful - especially using hydrocholic acid

In case anyone is still interested . . .

As someone else said, a soak in vinegar will remove the bluing. And while ya can't make a non-stainless gun into stainless, what I did works fine for me. After removing the bluing I bead-blasted the gun - then cleaned it completely with a Harbor Freight ultrasonic and Lyman's Turbo Sonic Steel and Gun Parts cleaner - rinsed it off in plain water, and then used non-chlorinated carb cleaner on everything. Finally, I used a Harbor Freight ultrasonic with Lymans Turbo Sonic Ultrasonic Gun Lube. The lube product dries to a dry-to-the-touch coating that lubricates AND PROTECTS the gun - my bead-blasted guns haven't rusted at all since I used this process several years ago. My pistols are kept inside the house, and when I shoot them, I clean them off - but the metal hasn't shown any visible rust since I processed them. I probably wouldn't blast an expensive gun, but for the Norinco 213 9mm and FEG Hi-Power knock off, the process worked great, for me.

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