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Blueing Question

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Mags
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Blueing Question

Post by Mags » Thu Jun 14, 2018 11:04 pm

So I was cleaning my Henry barrel bore recently. I got a little too generous on the swab with Hoppes #9 Solvent and had a few drips of blue liquid drip from the muzzle. Is the inside of the barrel blued and did I remove the inside blueing? or was the blue drips caused by powder residue interacting with the solvent?
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clovishound
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Re: Blueing Question

Post by clovishound » Fri Jun 15, 2018 1:18 am

Usually, green and blue staining from bore solvents is from the solvent removing copper fouling from the barrel.
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Mags
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Re: Blueing Question

Post by Mags » Fri Jun 15, 2018 10:38 pm

Hmm, I hadn't thought this would be from copper fouling. The bleed was a very gorgeous deep blue which lead me think first of blueing removal. Copper fouling I've seen before varied from greenish with a hint of blue to blue with a good bit of green in it. The Henry is new with about 60-80 rounds through it. I wouldn't expect to see a significant amount of copper fouling so early that I would get that much to show up during cleaning. Thanks for the insight.
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Re: Blueing Question

Post by JEBar » Fri Jun 15, 2018 11:54 pm

we have 3 Henry rifles .... when new one experienced a copper buildup after considerably fewer rounds than the other two .... in time that seems to have taken care of itself .... my theory has been that the barrel has a rougher finish than the other two .... that finish appears to be smoothing out as the number of shells fired increases .... please note, that's my theory but there certainly could be a very different cause
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Re: Blueing Question

Post by Mistered » Sat Jun 16, 2018 12:37 am

or was the blue drips caused by powder residue interacting with the solvent?
Yes - powder residue will appear to be a bluish gray when mixed with the solvent.
Bluing is a chemical process that 'stains' the metal - it is not something that can be removed by basic cleaning per se. Bluing wears normally or can be removed with aggressive rust removal chemicals but that is more like 'dissolving' it.
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Mags
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Re: Blueing Question

Post by Mags » Sat Jun 16, 2018 1:56 pm

JEBar wrote: ...my theory has been that the barrel has a rougher finish than the other two .... that finish appears to be smoothing out as the number of shells fired increases ....
I think that is a sound theory. I've read about that elsewhere.
Mistered wrote:
or was the blue drips caused by powder residue interacting with the solvent?
Yes - powder residue will appear to be a bluish gray when mixed with the solvent.
What I got wasn't bluish grey. It was a very pretty true blue ink color. Henry is due for another cleaning. I'll see if this is repeatable and post a picture if so.

Thanks for the info. I'm collecting a good color pallet here for what things related to this could be.
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Re: Blueing Question

Post by Les » Sat Jun 16, 2018 2:26 pm

I have no idea what caused the blue colored fluid, but I doubt very much that the inside of the barrel would be blued. As long as the bluing on the outside of the barrel is OK, I'd be inclined to put it down to one of those weird and wonderful things that aren't worth worrying about. ;)
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Re: Blueing Question

Post by Mags » Sat Jun 16, 2018 6:53 pm

Thanks. More curiosity than a worry. I believe the most common commercial bluing technique is done by immersion into a hot bath solution of potassium nitrate, sodium hydroxide, and water. So unless the ends of the barrel get plugged during the process, I would think that the inside of barrel gets blued too.
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Re: Blueing Question

Post by brianpa » Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:32 pm

when I brought my new Henry home I cleaned it and to my surprise it was as dirty as if I fired a hundred round through it. I believe they don't plug the barrels when bluing and it somewhat comes off while cleaning because it don't adhere as good inside the barrel as on the outside.
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Mags
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Re: Blueing Question

Post by Mags » Tue Jun 19, 2018 12:16 am

Cleaned the Henry today. I again ran some Hoppes#9 solvent out the barrel. I didn't get the deep blue that I remembered from before. This time I did see copper fouling in the color stain. I've not seen copper fouling like this come out of my other guns. Is this typical of Remington .30-30 Winchester Core-Lokt 150 gr ammo, the Henry or both?

Not sweating it, but it is an oddity to me.

(wouldn't know it, but my picture was rotated 90' to the left on upload)
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