jlseymour
Elite Cafe Member
Weldon, You sure do fine work...
Thanks
Jerry
Thanks
Jerry
Colt western art single action
- Thread starter Weldon47
- Start date
Weldon did you put anything over the French gray to protect it or do you normally leave it up to the owner to keep the gun oiled?
John B. once gave a recipe on one of the forums for a coin finish that I have wondered about using on one of these too. I am always a little paranoid about rust on bare steel.
Ray
John B. once gave a recipe on one of the forums for a coin finish that I have wondered about using on one of these too. I am always a little paranoid about rust on bare steel.
Ray
Hi Ray, thanks for mentioning that.
Just a couple of thoughts, mainly for others.
Properly applied French Gray is usually done now days by some method that employs a product containing phosphoric acid such as toilet bowl cleaners, Naval Jelly, blue remover or my favorite which is auto body prep.
They all work, some are easier to use when doing selective Gray, the thicker ones.
The auto body prep is my favorite if I'm dipping the whole piece.
They all slightly etch the metal and leave it coated with a phosphoric oxide.
Military parkerizing is a hot process using a stronger solution of phosphoric acid and imparts a very durable oxide, as you know.
What most modern French Gray amounts to is a weaker form of Parkerizing and is not bare metal.
In and of itself it gives a moderate amount of protection to the metal.
I always further protect it by warming the piece and dipping it into roughly 90% acetone 10% varnish solution.
This fills the etched pores of the metal with varnish after the acetone evaporates without covering the part with a coating that detracts.
Others like to apply a spray coat of some sort but I find this distasteful, just my opinion.
Hope this is some further thought starters.
You are much better on a computer than me, Ray and maybe you can post a link to the information on coatings if folks want to know. I even forget where I posted it, sorry.
PS. Those are some wonderful Colt's that both Weldon and you, Ray are showing. Great work.
PPS. Most of the older methods of French Gray employed the use of mercury and were pretty dangerous but very durable. They did make you glow in the dark, though! Ha ha.
Best regards, John B.
Just a couple of thoughts, mainly for others.
Properly applied French Gray is usually done now days by some method that employs a product containing phosphoric acid such as toilet bowl cleaners, Naval Jelly, blue remover or my favorite which is auto body prep.
They all work, some are easier to use when doing selective Gray, the thicker ones.
The auto body prep is my favorite if I'm dipping the whole piece.
They all slightly etch the metal and leave it coated with a phosphoric oxide.
Military parkerizing is a hot process using a stronger solution of phosphoric acid and imparts a very durable oxide, as you know.
What most modern French Gray amounts to is a weaker form of Parkerizing and is not bare metal.
In and of itself it gives a moderate amount of protection to the metal.
I always further protect it by warming the piece and dipping it into roughly 90% acetone 10% varnish solution.
This fills the etched pores of the metal with varnish after the acetone evaporates without covering the part with a coating that detracts.
Others like to apply a spray coat of some sort but I find this distasteful, just my opinion.
Hope this is some further thought starters.
You are much better on a computer than me, Ray and maybe you can post a link to the information on coatings if folks want to know. I even forget where I posted it, sorry.
PS. Those are some wonderful Colt's that both Weldon and you, Ray are showing. Great work.
PPS. Most of the older methods of French Gray employed the use of mercury and were pretty dangerous but very durable. They did make you glow in the dark, though! Ha ha.
Best regards, John B.
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I will try to find that John. It was valuable enough to me that I printed it all out and filed it here but I will try to find it for others.
Here is what I did on the Colt I just finished. I mask everything off that I wanted protected with dykem layout fluid. Its a laquer base and makes a great masking material. Then I used Birchwood Casey blue remover.
That particular gun was charcoal blued and it was taking forever to etch the bluing away with the remover straight out of the bottle. SO I had to come up with a solution to make it go faster. I got this harebrained idea to put some electric current through it.
SO>>>>>>>>>>> I used me pen plater. I hooked the ground on the metal part and dipped the pen in the bluing stripper and zap. it sped up the process about ten times. What was taking about a half hour to etch with the bare solution was getting cleaner and more even in about 3-4 minutes.
Now I have no idea what kind of effect the electricity had on the oxide formation but I do know I got the bluing stripped in about 10- 15% of the time it normally takes and I had a neat little felt tip applicator to work with to boot.
Here is what I did on the Colt I just finished. I mask everything off that I wanted protected with dykem layout fluid. Its a laquer base and makes a great masking material. Then I used Birchwood Casey blue remover.
That particular gun was charcoal blued and it was taking forever to etch the bluing away with the remover straight out of the bottle. SO I had to come up with a solution to make it go faster. I got this harebrained idea to put some electric current through it.
SO>>>>>>>>>>> I used me pen plater. I hooked the ground on the metal part and dipped the pen in the bluing stripper and zap. it sped up the process about ten times. What was taking about a half hour to etch with the bare solution was getting cleaner and more even in about 3-4 minutes. Now I have no idea what kind of effect the electricity had on the oxide formation but I do know I got the bluing stripped in about 10- 15% of the time it normally takes and I had a neat little felt tip applicator to work with to boot.
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