GTA
Airguns by Make and Model => Vintage Air Gun Gate => Topic started by: althawk on September 16, 2011, 12:57:25 AM
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Estate Sale 'rescue'
Early January-February '64 due to lack of batch/month numbering.
Stock has been refinished. 6x coats Birchwood-Casey Stock Oil.
http://www.amazon.com/Birchwood-Casey-Tru-Oil-Stock-Finish/dp/B0025VYAFS (http://www.amazon.com/Birchwood-Casey-Tru-Oil-Stock-Finish/dp/B0025VYAFS)
Assembly re-blued. 90% of a 16 oz. bottle of Brownell's OXPHO Blue. Applied with cotton balls and elbow grease.
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1072/product/OXPHO_BLUE_reg_ (http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1072/product/OXPHO_BLUE_reg_)
Generic 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper used between coats of Tru-Oil.
http://www.amazon.com/POWERTEC-Sandpaper-Sheets-Silicon-Carbide/dp/B002C5YJ3K (http://www.amazon.com/POWERTEC-Sandpaper-Sheets-Silicon-Carbide/dp/B002C5YJ3K)
One of these days i'll have to take photos of it and share. It looked OLD and now it looks nice. Only the oxpho blue just looks a lil chromatic at spots...
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Can't wait to see pix! ;D
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Photos:
(if someone could tell me how to get them in any particular order, with comments underneath, would appreciate it)
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As you can see, the rear sight is missing all three screws, but that has not been a problem. This blue streak is the most accurate thing I own with open sights. So I don't really see the need to mess with a good thing. "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" (baroque)
Though i did buy some stainless steel set screws that could in a pinch be used as elevation screws if i cut off about 3/8" from the tip.
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Photos:
(if someone could tell me how to get them in any particular order, with comments underneath, would appreciate it)
As far as I know, you can cut and paste the URLs to the photos into the order you want, then put your comments between each URL. I could be wrong, but I believe that should work. :)
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Looking real sweet. I have a '65 Blue Streak. Awesome rifles.
What did you re-blue, the trigger guard?
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Used oxpho-blue on the whole thing.
Probably should buy some more and do a better job on the top of the receiver.
When i first had it there was a lot of copper showing, now its almost chromatic.
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I don't think you can blue anything but steel. I tried bluing some brass once and all I got was what looked like very a poor color casehardening job. That may be what you mean by "chromatic" I guess.
Some folks have used Brass Black to chemically blacken brass and copper. I think Birchwood Casey makes it.
I left the brass/copper go on my 'Dan for that old gun patina look.
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If you want to get technical, then yes its not really blue-ing if its non-ferrous.
The older sheridans are brass with a copper plating that is then darkened somehow with heat+chemicals (silver streaks are nickel plated).
The new benjamin/sheridans are brass covered with paint.
When I was researching what to do about the copper showing in the assembly, I read that oxpho-blue worked on blue streaks.
Another product that was recommended was Brass Black.
I looked at some photos that people had posted and decided I liked the way oxpho-blue looked compared to Brass Black.
Take a look at the sheen on the trigger, now imagine that on the whole assembly...
On the spots that I put alot of elbow grease into it, the oxpho blue worked well, other spots that I wasn't to concerned about it does look a lil weird (uneven), maybe this is that "poor color case hardening" that you mention.
What happened:
applied a generous amount of oxpho-blue via cotton balls to the exposed copper... in about 30 seconds there was a visible darkening and eventually the spot would look like charcoal grey. If I rubbed that spot with the cotton ball, it'd go from carbon grey to a metallic greyish-blue sheen (after considerable rubbing).
See the receiver photos, the sides are well rubbed, the top is just lightly applied, and wiped after the chemical reaction occured.
unfortunately i've run outta oxpho-blue (as you can see by the empty bottle)... so i can't get the area by the front sight and the top of the reciever properly rubbed.
If it looked hideous, I could always apply a flat black paint or try brass black. For the most part I'm happy with the way it turned out. If I had to do it over again, I'd have paced my self better (it got tiring rubbing with cotton balls) and use 2x bottles of oxpho-blue.