What is the finish called that looks like black primer that you occasionally see on a handgun? It looks duller than regular blueing but looks really good. I am planning on refinishing an old barrel that I have. I have never reblued anything but I am going to give it a shot and see how it turns out.

It's called "parkerized finish". Definition from Wikipedia:

Parkerizing (also called phosphating and phosphatizing) is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear through the application of an electrochemical phosphate conversion coating. Parkerizing is usually considered to be an improved zinc or manganese phosphating process, and not to be an improved iron phosphating process, although some use the term parkerizing as a generic term for applying phosphating (or phosphatizing) coatings that does include the iron phosphating process. Parkerizing is commonly used on firearms as a more effective alternative to bluing, which is another electrochemical conversion coating that was developed earlier. The Parkerizing process cannot be used on non-ferrous metals such as aluminum, brass, or copper. It similarly cannot be applied to steels containing a large amount of nickel, or on stainless steel. (See Passivation for protecting other metals.)

besides parkerizing you can also have your gun bead blasted before it is blued and it will come out a matte black.

Is it possible to blue one at home and it come out looking acceptable?

As far as it coming out acceptable... well that all depends on what you classify as acceptable and how well you do the job. I have seen blueing kits but don't know of anyone who has tried it at home. I have seen some of the home made stuff here on the site that has come out really nice. Give it a try and post pics of the completed job. You can be the guinea pig.

I just bought an old Contender frame that needed some touch up. I got that frame out of the 4 he had because it had some work done to it. I heated up the trigger guard with a blow dryer and got it nice and hot before I applied the bluing solution. I have been told that the hotter you get it the better the bluing will be. I have seen a piece a friend of mine did were he used a torch to heat up the metal and it looked amazing. I just don’t have the intestinal fortitude to try it… yet.

OMG, that is a no, no x2. You can heat to the point that the metal loses it's temper and then all sorts of bad things can happen.

I just did a touch up on a Bisley with Perma Blue paste and it came out great with no heating involved. It takes several "coats", each followed by a cold water rinse and steel wooling. You just need to degrease prior to starting (I use brake cleaner) and use surgical gloves so you keep your oils off of of the steel. I also did a complete ML kit with the same stuff, works great.

So when doing a "touch up" can you apply the blue all over, or just the small areas that need it? What I mean is will it "stick" to bluing that is still intact?

It will blend in nicely. Once the blue reaches a certain level, that is all the color it will take so you can't really hurt anything by going over existing. When doing touch up I concentrated on the bare areas with several (5-7) coats, after which a couple of coats over a larger area to blend it. I didn't "do" the whole revolver and you can't tell where it started and ends.
Not all guns are created equall, so can't vouch for the depth of factory blue on other than my Rugers, which have a deep blue.

Thanks for the heads up S4S4U. I should have clarified that the gentleman only heated the metal to the point that it was hot… NOT “RED HOT.” That is the reason I just used the hair dryer.

One last question. How important is it to try and find a bluing that matches the color of the existing blue? I looked in my Midway catalog and they have a bunch of different colors. Or will the new bluing just cover the old enough that any color difference cant be noticed?

I've used alot of the cold blues and you can make them look nice the biggest thing is they won't wear as well as hot bluing. The best cold blue I've found for looks and wear is from Brownells and is called Oxpho-Blue, the part # for the 16oz bottle is 082-024-016. I saw it's now available in a paste but I haven't tried it yet, the next on my list is the Birchwood Casey bluing, I prefer the paste because it stays in place while it works but the liquid works fine and their super blue works better on polished parts. I myself bought the Dicropan system but if you just have one gun to touch up it's not worth the cost (about 500.00), it is a hot water rust blue set up and it comes out looking nice and is supposed to be more resistant to rust than hot blue which is nice here in the northwest, it's also good on guns with soldered parts that can come apart under high heat.

I guess the only advice I can give there is that you want the new finish to be darker, if anything, than the existing. The Birchwood Casey Perma Blue paste that I have used does get a nice deep dark blue very similar to the Ruger factory blue. I cannot comment on any others, but would not be shy to try it on anything blued. It gets increasingly deeper and darker after each application.

I was actually looking at something that I think is almost black. I might try it becuase it will surely be darker than the current blue.

Hey I saw a new finish on midway usa's friday night at the range. It was some kinda bake on finish . They said it was tougher than blue and lasted twice as long. Cant remember what it's called maybe some one elce can remember. It seemed easy to install , Just paint on , let dry , and bake at 300 degreee's .

Lars

get it done right, and be happy forever with better resale value as well....at one of these two places.

http://www.thegungarage.com/

http://www.mahovskysmetalife.com/

It's called Cerama-Coat and don't get me started on that crap. I bought a can to redo a 1911 slide and some scope rings. Long story short it was faulty and ruined everything to the point it has to be sandblasted off. I e-mailed Wheeler Engineering and was told they had gotten a lot of complaints. I got a reply the other day that they found a bunch of bad cans and when they got some new ones in would be happy to send me a replacement. My question to them, which has gone unanswered, was who's ganna pay for the fixing of all the stuff their pruduct screwed up. I'll take the new can and promptly return it to Midway for a refund. Grrrr!

S4Su, what kind of prep work is neccessary before you use that product? Does the old bluing have to be removed? If so how did you accomplish that?

By the way, hope they make good on your costs.

Vance, the prep is simple. Just knock off any rust or loose stuff, if there is any, with steel wool or similar and then spray with a degreaser. It sticks to any surface. The can I used went on like a powder coat texture, which I thought would leven out when baked, like powder coat, as there is nothing in the instructions that says otherwise. Problem is it stayed that way and the surface was like 80 grit sandpaper and hard as nails. I was not the only one that experienced this. I am a bit gunshy about using it again, but after their reassurances I just may now that I know what to look for, their instructions are a bit vague about some things. I decided to leave the slide as is, Ugly Betty it's now called, and it's my beater 1911 anyway but sure is easy to grasp and rack now. The rings I soaked in paint thinner for a couple of weeks and after some elbow grease got cleaned up enough to paint with Rustoleum. If it works as it is supposed to it is easy enough for sure.

+1!

Some times its cool to learn a new skill.

Yep, Kyle, both do real fine work but some of us just like to do stuff like this, whether to save $$$ or just for S&G's ;-)