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Dad's Water Damaged Colt!!!

Be sure to keep us updated on your progress. That is going to be one sweet lookin' pistol.

Awaiting a shipment to make some bluing salts, I searched the entire South end of Atlanta and came up empty. I ordered Lye online and Nitrate of soda. It may take a week or more for the Nitrate. I have everything else to perform the bluing.

I'm still looking for the grips and haven't seen anything that has forced me to drop the hammer on the plastic card yet.

UPDATE:

Supplies arrived, grips and magazine ordered.....

So it begins!

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You have done a beautiful job. My hats off to you. And good luck with the grips. My opinion is the original type. Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see the finished product.
 
real lye can be found as some ace hardware stores in their drain opener


getting hard to find though... Hills hardware out our way has it..Drano isn't it


be very careful with the fumes and getting any on exposed body parts..BTDT
 
I was going to wait until she had some clothes but she looks good naked. So here is the backyard home blue with Nitrate fertilizer and lye. The details of the home made bluing salts will follow.



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More coming! :cool:
 
Next up

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So here is some of the G2/information on this home made bluing:

Hot blue Home brewing Salts

http://www.maconfeedandseed.com/product_info.php/products_id/103 8.99 +12.23 shipping and tax

http://www.essentialdepot.com/servlet/the-1/8-lbs-Food-Grade/Detail
12.49 +shipping 15.06
Total cost of salts (can reuse)
Approximately $21 +$28 shipped but if picked up less

Equipment and supplies

I bought the black iron wire, TSP, and the large thermometer (turkey fryer type) from Ace hardware for around $25
Shipping will eat your butt up. The materials were cheaper than the shipping!

So a quick down and dirty on this.

Once you have obtained your supplies and equipment you will need to stir in your lye to a pot of distilled water (Do Not Use Aluminum-it creates Hydrogen gas).

UPDATE: Use an Enamel type pot, rather than stainless to obtain a darker/uniform blue. The stainless can impart some bluing irregularities. You may also order the expensive steel ones from Brownells.

I used a large stainless steel pot and a mild steel rod. When mixing add small amounts of lye and mix well. The solution will create an exothermic reaction that will liberate gas and heat. Don’t breathe the vapors. I used a floor fan to vent the fumes out the garage door away from me. I used a splash/face shield and rubber gloves for safety. Once mixed you can heat it up on your heat source. It will be rather warm already.

I then mixed in small amounts the nitrate fertilizer until it was dissolved using the mild steel rod from Lowes. While mixing the nitrate in the rod took on a beautiful blue hue. I now have bluing salts! I attempted to heat my salts on a BBQ grill but with my thermometer (turkey frying type) would only get to 250 degrees. The minimum temp suggested was 253 degrees.

I tossed the gun parts wired up with the black iron wire purchased at Ace hardware into a pot of hot regular water and a tablespoon of TSP to degrease the metal. After about 10-15 minutes I pulled the metal out and was very careful not to get any oil from my hands or elsewhere on the freshly degreased parts. I used white paper towel to wipe excess water off and prevent water stains. I made sure nearly all the water was out of the bore.

I pointed the bore away from me to insure any water remaining would vent away as it was dipped in the hot salt bath. I stirred the salt bath with my steel rod to keep the salts flowing. The gun metal took a beautiful light blue/plum color and looked good. I wanted a bit darker color and knew the temperature would have to go up to at least 253 degrees. The wife gave me a kitchen pass and I was allowed to heat the salts on the stove with the vent turned on. At this point the fumes were minimal as most of the off gassing was when I mixed the lye and distilled water.

After about a total contact time of 40 minutes in the hot salt bath the parts took on a dark black color. Some had a soot coating and I pulled the parts and placed them in a pot of plain hot water to flush the salts out after about 10-15 minutes I pulled the parts and immediately tossed them in a pan of fresh motor oil. Some of the parts flashed rust as I was moving from the hot water to the oil.
After allowing the parts to set overnight I pulled them and sprayed break cleaner and used an acetone bath to get most of the oil off. I wiped down the parts with white paper towel and the results were very impressive.

Care needs to be exercised with the Salts as they are very caustic and will react with other elements like aluminum to create hydrogen gas (open flame+Hydrogen=Boom!). Untreated wood, stainless steel, iron steel and plastic should be fine. Once the salts cooled down (it takes a while) I poured them into a 5 gallon bucket with a rubber sealed top. I had to scrape the bottom of the pan with a plastic serving spoon as the salts crystalized at the bottom. The salts can be reused until they fail to blue.
These are two web sites I used. The first is the recipe/ratio I went with.

http://www.blindhogg.com/homemadesalts.html

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/261805_.html

The only real issue with Dad’s Woodsman is the safety. When sanding down the rust pits it appears to have two steel post soldered and the blue didn’t take (probably silver). I could weld it up a bit or might purchase another one and polish it lightly and re-blue it.
Parts for these discontinued pistols can be difficult to obtain. I picked up my new springs through these web sites:

http://www.poppertsgunparts.com/cgi-bin/webdata/webdata_gunparts.cgi?Model=COLT+WOODSMAN&pagenum=2&cgifunction=Search

http://www.wisnersinc.com/pistols/COLTpistol.html

My Dad and I both agreed the Eagle Woodsman rosewood grips were the nicest. There were several others that looked nice too. Here are the links:

http://www.eaglegrips.com/guns/Woodsman-22lr-2nd-Generation.html

http://www.grips4u.net/index.php?cPath=38_60&&page=2

http://www.gungripsupply.com/

Here are some Woodsman reference sites for those looking:

http://www.colt22.com/index.html

http://gunownersresource.com/gorole/index.php?title=Colt_Woodsman
 
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The Mark(s) of a professional ...


Think of an idea.

"Restore a Damaged 'Basket-Case' to like-new condition."

"Topic, Colt Woodsman, Semi-automatic 22LR Pistol."

~~~


Determine whether it is worth spending time on.

Evaluate what is required.

Purchase, or obtain in other fashion ( such as find, swap, read ), tools, materials and information.

Practice.
Ask for advice.
Evaluate advice.

Dispose of obvious bad information.

Read and learn all you can afford.

Then, after obtaining all that is needed, DO IT !

Then, show the evidence, Pictures, Testimonials, and Targets ...



Gosh, Guys. See ? Easy to talk about, until you actually do it.



"Whassis new fangled thang called pitchers, an howday werk ?"



Well, I agree. I can't do things like this anymore, but I do dearly wish I could !

I am avidly anticipating the presentation of the inevitable display of those "Brag-About" targets, that I know this firearm is capable of producing.


~~~~~

Remember this ?

Three types of people ...

1. Those who make things happen.

2. Those who watch what happened.

3. Those who wonder what happened.

As we all know, RamRoddoc is one who 'Makes Things Happen !'

Yes! I am a FAN !
 
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