Thread: birchwood cold bluing turning to rust one week later

Im with tetawa - dont ever use a steel based product, like steel wool, to polish/buff out the affected area. Or sandpaper etc either! I've used Birchwood Casey a lot over the years and never had anything like that happen. Once I've applied the bluing solution, I give it a few minutes and then rinse it with really hot water, out of the electric jug. Give it some time to cool down, then repeat. Do it enough times, using really hot water each time, and it should get darker and darker. But it will never get rich enough to actually match the original blue. Once you are satisfied with the depth of the colour, keep the oil up to it, maybe even daily, for a few weeks. And then regularly after that cos it just seems to drink the stuff.
Blued a complete single barrel shotgun many years ago with repeated coats of Birchwood Casey. Came up real nice. I think that shotguns still going, but definitely has lost some of its colour now.