how do i re-black my air rifle.

I have an air rifle, that i tried to clean with methylated spirits or edit : pure isopropyl alcohol.

but all it did was remove the blacking.

and now it`s covered in silver patches.

is their anything i can do to re-black it.

edit : added a picture, it`s not very good.



thankyou.

John.

Depends on the type of finish. If it's chemically blued, a cold bluing solution applied as directed will usually work well. A lot of lower priced gun finishes are simply paint of one type or another.

If you want to refinish the entire piece, I really like the bake-on finishs from www.brownells.com

Not difficult and durable. I don't know their shiping policies.

The rifle is very old, i dont know what type of coating is used.

I have added a picture.

thankyou.

John.

We've got some serious airgun guys around. I'm sure one of them will show up soon.

My guess is it's an old Webley sidelever with a chemical blue finish. Very nice rifle, btw.

it has "WEIHRAUCH made in W.Germany" and "HW 77" on it.

it is extremly heavy, I bought it for £50 second hand years ago.

I got offered £200 from a guy who worked in a gun shop.

I would like to restore it to good condition.

regards.

John.

jeez you sure you didn`t pick up the battery acid instead of the meths??
meths is a very gentle cleaner, not much is affected by it
..... a bit difficult to recommend a solution, you can get a cold "blacking" cream
Nice rifle, WIERAUCH HW77 ...they have superb triggers i`ve had a coupl of em
... come on it adds character, i wouln`t be to worried about it

Hmmm, if isopropyl alcohol removed it, then it was most likely some sort of paint/varnish/coating and not all that durable.

If the parts are steel, you can (here in the US at least) get a cold blue/black coating. I've used it and it came out OK. There are also products to 're-black' aluminum as well. Or as BigIron said, you can go to a baked on type of finish. Peruse the Brownells link for ideas and choices.

I'd probably clean it and cold-blue it myself. One trick to cold-blueing is to make sure the part in question is clean-clean-clean. No grease or oil at all, not even a fingerprint.

I have tried some rub on gun blacking or blueing, but it would not take at all.

thanks.

John.

Interesting. I wonder if the barrel is some type of alloy with a rifled steel liner.

As Moonrise said, the work must be absolutely clean. Acetone works well but it will probably remove more of the other finish if it's not blueing (and it might remove blueing).

You might just leave it as is and tell people it's "carry wear" from your last safari.

If the metal is not plain steel, typical cold blue/black will not work. It will not work on stainless steel, it will not work on aluminum, it will not work on zinc, it will not work on brass, it will not work on anything other than plain CLEAN steel.

If you want to blacken it, you could try the lowbrow approach of a black permanent marker like a Sharpie. If the previous 'black' wiped off with isopropyl alcohol, then the previous owner might have done that as well. I think iso wipes off Sharpie ink, I know that acetone does.

IIRC, acetone does not remove cold blue. At least the one I used wasn't removed when I wiped it down between coats with acetone (clean-clean-clean, remember).

all I can say is that a magnet is strongly attracted to the barrel.

I tried methylated spirits to see if it would remove the blacking it would not.

it must have been isopropyl alcohol that i used.

thanks for your help.

John.