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December 29, 2023
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Picked up a Winchester 1894 take down in 25-35 made in 1902 from a friend. the blueing is what looks like salt blued high polish in 1902 would this still be rust blued? receiver and barrel.
April 15, 2005
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Barrels were rust blued through early 1932 (when Winchester was still using Nickel Steel alloy barrels). The receiver frames were never rust blued. Instead, they were “machine” blued (carbonia) up until the late 1930s when Winchester began Du-light bluing them.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
December 29, 2023
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Thanks Bert the hammer, lever, butt and forearm cap were C.C.H.?
April 15, 2005
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Doc Lane said
Thanks Bert the hammer, lever, butt and forearm cap were C.C.H.?
Only the hammer, lever and crescent butt plates were case color finished, and that was discontinued sometime in the 1914 – 1916 time period.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
December 29, 2023
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Bert Were the magazine hanger, magazine tube , forend cap, and takedown cap rust blued ?
April 15, 2005
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Doc Lane said
Bert Were the magazine hanger, magazine tube , forend cap, and takedown cap rust blued ?
During the time period when Winchester was rust bluing the barrels, the magazine tubes were rust blued as well. I do not know what bluing method was used for the magazine hanger rings (or the barrel bands), or the forend cap. Not sure what you are referring to by “takedown cap” ?
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
December 29, 2023
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TAKE DOWN LEVER.
April 15, 2005
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Doc Lane said
TAKE DOWN LEVER.
No idea what bluing method was used.
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
December 29, 2023
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Thinking out loud here Bert all of the original receivers the receiver, hanger and forearm cap loose there blueing first. before the barrel and mag tube..
April 15, 2005
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Doc Lane said
Thinking out loud here Bert all of the original receivers the receiver, hanger and forearm cap loose there blueing first. before the barrel and mag tube..
All of the various pieces and parts were separately manufactured in large batches. The final step before for each piece part before being delivered to the assembly room (in bins) was to apply the finish to them (in batches). In example, a batch of magazine hanger rings to be blued might have been as many as several hundred at once, whereas a batch of receiver frames might have been only a few dozen. Those kinds of details were ever not recorded or documented to the best of my knowledge.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
January 20, 2023
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Bert H. said
Doc Lane said
Bert Were the magazine hanger, magazine tube , forend cap, and takedown cap rust blued ?
During the time period when Winchester was rust bluing the barrels, the magazine tubes were rust blued as well. I do not know what bluing method was used for the magazine hanger rings (or the barrel bands), or the forend cap. Not sure what you are referring to by “takedown cap” ?
Bert
Bert,
Of course I’m ignorant of what actually got done to the small parts but, based on what I’ve read and seen about machine bluing, it would have been a lot less labor intensive to string them up in a rotating oven than trying to acid wipe and then card the little things off repeatedly, don’t you think? The only other process used in that period (that I’ve heard of) was nitre bluing a/k/a molten salts bluing and fire bluing – the one Colt’s used early for pins and screws. But I don’t think it wore well enough for exposed parts and I don’t recall seeing peacock colored barrel bands. Logically, the most likely process for bluing un-handy small parts would have been batching them in the ovens.
Conversely, the magazine tubes are enough like little barrels to blue them the same way. I guess they still had to plug them even if there was no rifling to protect, unless they would sand off the internal rust with a tool to keep the metal from pitting?
As much as I love rust blue’s wear resistance, I can see where DuLite must have been the factory’s cost accountants’ dream come true.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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