I've been getting a lot of questions lately about what kind of finish should go on an AK rifle. Well I build AK's and my interests tend towards that peculiarity, but I have also developed an interest in bluing, so all my AK's (except the first two) are blued. I always hot-blue my rifles, because that's the technique I learned, and as they say, "When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Well I've hot-blued all my AK's and they look really great. I do it in my backyard, and excluding the two hours spent in metal preparation, the bluing process takes about two hours form, "Gee I'd like to blue my AK today." to an assembled blued AK.
Now if you haven't mixed up a batch of bluing salts, that takes a couple hours too and it costs about $135. They do not wear out as long as you don't contaminate them, and you can blue as many guns as you want.
You can read about hot bluing here
I've also recently read about a process which is said to be more durable (if that's possible) and a hell of a lot cheaper. It's the old fashioned rust-bluing method.
You can read about rust bluing here
I'm going to give it a try to see how well it works, but both methods produce beautiful guns. The hot-bluing is faster and it produces a deep black finish, but the rust bluing is cheaper, much more difficult, and produces a real blue finish which its proponents say is more durable. For you people who want to blue a gun you might try one of these methods. The threads are a good read.
Now if you haven't mixed up a batch of bluing salts, that takes a couple hours too and it costs about $135. They do not wear out as long as you don't contaminate them, and you can blue as many guns as you want.
You can read about hot bluing here
I've also recently read about a process which is said to be more durable (if that's possible) and a hell of a lot cheaper. It's the old fashioned rust-bluing method.
You can read about rust bluing here
I'm going to give it a try to see how well it works, but both methods produce beautiful guns. The hot-bluing is faster and it produces a deep black finish, but the rust bluing is cheaper, much more difficult, and produces a real blue finish which its proponents say is more durable. For you people who want to blue a gun you might try one of these methods. The threads are a good read.
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