what do you prefer

**lance4682** · January 6th, 2009, 09:50 PM

cold bluing, hot bluing, or parkerizing and why

**Xringshooter** · January 6th, 2009, 10:39 PM

Hot blueing gives the best look, that deep dark blue that looks nice against a good piece of walnut. Parkerizing has been used by he military for years and their guns don't seem to be rusting (that may also be because they pound it into your head to take care of it all the time). Cold blue doesn't quite have the same protection properties as the other two but if done right can make a crappy gun look pretty good again. IMO, probably the best blueing came from Colt on their Pythons (back in the day, '60's, '70's). That deep Royal Blue looked great.

**knight0334** · January 6th, 2009, 10:49 PM

For durability, the parkerizing hands down. Its a deeper metal treatment than hot bluing. Cold bluing is only a couple atoms thick treatment that offers little to no protections and is only meant for spot treatments for worn or scratched spots.

For looks, the hot bluing on polished parts. If polished to a near mirror finish, then hot blued, then buffed - you can get very close to the Python's Royal Blue.

**Seventy4Blazer** · January 6th, 2009, 11:12 PM

Originally Posted by Xringshooter

Hot blueing gives the best look, that deep dark blue that looks nice against a good piece of walnut. Parkerizing has been used by he military for years and their guns don't seem to be rusting (that may also be because they pound it into your head to take care of it all the time). Cold blue doesn't quite have the same protection properties as the other two but if done right can make a crappy gun look pretty good again. IMO, probably the best blueing came from Colt on their Pythons (back in the day, '60's, '70's). That deep Royal Blue looked great.

umm... what he said... ^^^^

**Pukindog** · January 7th, 2009, 03:53 PM

Believe it or not the most durable and attractive blue is a " cold rust " blue job. Takes hours and hours to get the right results. I am not talking about the the cold solutions youcan get at K Mart or Dick's or ?. This process requires the metal to rust. The rust is then "carded" off with a scraper. This is repeated many times until the desired finish is obtained. used by the finest gun makers for expensive firearms.
The deepeness of a hot blue is dependant on several things: the amount of polishing and buffing of the metal, the type of salts used, solution temperatures, degreasing, etc. You get the picture.
Bluing prices vary widely due to these factors.

Jeff