Nitre blued pistol lock

KSnyder · Aug 3, 2007

Everyone,
just finished this pistol lock which was a bit of xperimentation. I only about 1/3 rd sanded it to give it a slightly pitted look and used a more 19th cent. stlye of engraving. Nitre blued after.
comments and critique welcome. sorry about the "photography".

Kent

ddushane · Aug 3, 2007

Kent, I love it! You did an awesome job!!!! Is that a Silor Lock? Looks like the one I put on mine. I've got a 40 cal Lancaster style that I built 15 yrs ago that I've always wanted to engrave, just been waiting on my skill level at engraving to get there before I do it so I don't mess it up. I used permabrown on mine for the finish. One of my issues too is not being able to decide on a pattern. I want it to look like the engravings from the era kinda. One thing I'm wanting to learn to is engraving around small stuff, like the hammers, I see so much of the beautiful engraving on the old shotguns and am amazed at the detail. I would love to be able to see one of the masters engrave some of these small pieces. Anyway I'll quit rambling, Keep up the good work! Dwayne

monk · Aug 3, 2007

i'm a fan of the old style engraving. i like this. what is "nitre" bluing ? have heard the term, but know not what it is.

John B. · Aug 3, 2007

monk said:
i'm a fan of the old style engraving. i like this. what is "nitre" bluing ? have heard the term, but know not what it is.

Hi Monk.
Nitre blue is a heat blue process.
The nitre is used as solid salts which melt with heat.
These are usually heated to around F.550-600 degrees.
The part is withdrawn from the pot on an iron wire to check for the desired color.
The heat is too high to use on any stressed part of a modern firearm but is very beautiful on things such as floor plates, butt plates, grip caps etc.
It looks just great on some BP parts and many other things.
It would look very rich on some of your steel or iron belt buckles.
Take a look in the Brownell's catalog.
They have all the supplies and a lot of information about the process.

Best regards, John B.

KSnyder · Aug 3, 2007

Dwayne,
Yep, its small Siler I built from a kit. since its percussion I used a latter period type pattern
MonK,
Nitre blue is a hot blue method using potassium nitrate for the "soup". It melts a 630 deg. f. You put the part or parts in the nitrate , it takes about 10 min. to get a good rich color.
I cook it on a charcoal grill.

before the steak of course. And yeah, as John replied it does look great on steel buckles.
thanks for your comments.
Kent

LRB · Aug 3, 2007

Very classey, nicely done!!

monk · Aug 3, 2007

thank you. i will just check that out. sounds like something fun to do on a personal project. thanks again.

FL-Flinter · Aug 3, 2007

Awesome! Everything flows nicely and the color is great! I like the wood color & finish too, what did you use on it?

KSnyder · Aug 6, 2007

Flinter, the stain I used is Color-rich stain sold by muzzleloader builders supply. 2 coats & then a coat of Lancaster maple by Permalyn over the top and oil finished.
posting a pic of the whole pistol before engraving.

JourneymanBuilder · Aug 6, 2007

I like what I see, would like to see more of it though

The flash glare makes it a tad tough to see all of the detail.

tengraver · Oct 17, 2008

Nice work, very authentic looking.

Nitre blued pistol lock

KSnyder

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