Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Anyone ever use SOCOM Blue Cerakote to approximate real blurring?

I've got an old Savage 23AA with good wood and a lot of lost blueing.
Id like to clean it up but at the cost of a proper charcoal blue.


Local smith does nice phosphate but id kinda hate to do that so I'm wondering if I have an option.
That Cerakote doesn't look bad in photos but its a coating and I'm not sold on that either.

Thoughts?

Seen it done a bunch. Looks like paint

That sucks, and that's what I was afraid of. Looks like parkerizing or leave it be.
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If you spray it in your eye it'll definitely cause some real blurring.

Ha! Dann autocorrect...

Not even close. Gunkote make blue that isn't bad. Its much deeper and has a little shine to it. I used it on a few older rifles that had accessory parts I needed done.

Thanks - ill check that out

Do you know which particular one?

Midnight purple gloss mixed with flat black looks like rust blueing sorta but they discontinued the purple. I have always wanted to try the clear over good blueing but haven't done it.

Well, it IS paint after all.

Kinda my point. No brand or type of paint is going to look like blued steel.

kragman,
I have a model 70 in 6.5x55 SE that I had the barrel and action blued. Looks like the real thing. I also have another - Interarms Mark X in 358 Win that I had cerakoted in school colors. The Mark X was in my safe with almost all of the other firearms. It's the only one with no rust on the outside, just be part of the bolt that wasn't cerakoted.

The 6.5 color I went with was 'Midnight Blue'.

Cold rust blue. Not really hard to do.

Oxpho blue and a little patience still does a pretty good job approximating real bluing.
See video tab
T-4 generally works for me where Oxpho doesn't give me the look I want.
44/40 is aggressive and needs to be neutralized THOROUGHLY. Baking soda solution.

Thanks all. I've never seen cold blue turn out well but I've never done it myself either and I don't really know how well the other guys prepped.

Maybe I should try it.

Any opinions about bluein G over what's there, or stripping with navel jelly?

Takes some practice and maybe redoing a time or two but it can come out looking pretty good. Technique and steel composition are everything. Or maybe you'll get lucky and get it the first time.

I've reblued several truck guns for people (not worth taking to a gunsmith even if we had one) with Oxpho, worn blue from a lot to a whole lot. Just degrease and with practice the cold blue blends in surprisingly well.

238-Midnight Blue is what Cerakote recommends to approximate real bluing. 245-Socom Blue is just a tad darker. It should look good. It should never look like paint. 16-1 mix ratio will make it shine up a bit. It is hundreds of times more durable than real bluing or Parkerizing. I probably would do 146-Graphite black in a matte ratio. I like the look of it better than the Midnight Blue. A lot of guns are coming from the factory in the 146-Graphite Black now days.

It takes a lot of equipment and a fair amount of experience to apply it properly. There are no shortcuts.
I would not recommend trying to do it yourself or it will end up being expensive paint rather than the state of the art ceramic coating that it can be.

Another guy that’s seen oxho bluing turn out well.
The guys at Brownells will talk you through it.