Bluing with stump rot chem.

[yukondog]

Has any body here tried bluing small pieces with melted stump rot? I tried it today and it seems to work pretty good, but after quenching in oil the pieces have hardened potassium on them and I was wondering if I did something wrong or if this is normal and if normal how do I remove it without scratching the bluing?

[Catfish]

Never tried that, but I used to boil my new steel traps in walnut hulls and that put a nice blue balck finish on them.

[charles p]

I've boiled traps in longwood dye crystals, which are made from a SA wood I think.  Not sure if the word in longwood or logwood.  Never heard any dye called stump rot.  I also threw in a very old pair of Kline (or Cline, not sure) lineman pliers and was very pleased with the result.  No rust on those pliers in ten years.  They are probably 60 years old.  I did not get a finish with any luster like a blued finish gun.

[yukondog]

 It's not a die but for helping stumps rot faster, if I'm not mistaken it's main ingredient is potassium.It gave the parts a nice deep bluing at least the parts that dont have a hard white crust on them.

[quickdtoo]

Rinse the crust off in water, the KNO3(potassium nitrate) will dissolve. FWIW I've tried a barrel twice, didn't get a good finish at all, just too hard to get that much metal heated the same, should work great for small parts tho. I also found pure KNO3 much cheaper online than what Stump Rot costs locally even after shipping.

Tim

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/58

[Cornbelt]

What you've got w/saltpeter is a niter bath blue. Some people mix it w/lye (1 scoop KNO3 to 2 lye). You can get it from Brownells' already mixed and it doesn't take water. It also will give things a softer temper due to the 575 degrees or so it takes to get a nice blue, so screws are one thing, but some parts you won't want to blue w/niter. (You don't ever use water w/this), but you can pull the parts as they change colors begenning with straw, then gold, brown ,purple, blue and finally grey. Then if you don't like it, it will need to be sanded off and begun again.
         Another black "blue" is one that takes caustic soda (50 parts by weight), sodium nitrate(20 parts by weight), and sodium nitrite(8 parts by weight) and water in a concentration that will boil at 185F. You need to rince it off w/cold water and then rince it in hot water to get off the chemicals. If you think it needs to be darker, rince it w/cold before putting it back in. That's an oxide blue.
   Both will melt soft solder.

[yukondog]

Thanks Tim, on some of the pieces the potassium flaked off and took the bluing off that area, I think I will wind up redoing the pieces with cold bluing I've had fairly good luck that. I'll try soaking them over night and see what hapens.

[yukondog]

Thanks for all the advice, after soaking in water for about an hour they cleaned right up.

[Antietamgw]

A good thread with useful info! I have blueing tanks but have often considered a nitre bath for the small odd thing that needs blue. These little jobs usually happen right after the tanks have cooled and been put away... The caustic soda, sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite sounds like it might work even better on heat sensitive parts and wouldn't take much of a heat source. Thanks again for the info.

[shooter6br]

I have used Crystal Drain cleaner . It doesnt blue but "blackens" Look in DIY gunsmithing forum