I recieved a bottle of Oxpho-Blue from Brownell's today and tried it out on a few small sections of my trapdoor barrel.  It would NOT take to the reciever .  What is the fix?

Assumming I decide to use this product on the trapdoor, I would like a matt finish as opposed to a mirror smooth finish. I assume I can achieve a matt finish by using a coarse grade of wet or dry. Am I correct? and if so, what grade should I use? Thanks! Joe S

Not only does Oxpho Blue not like hard steel, it also doesn't much care for brightly polished steel.  Best results I've had have been with a polish no finer than 400 grit (320 is better) and apply the Oxpho with a small ball of degreased steel wool (OO grade).  Let it set on the metal, wipe it off with paper towels and apply again.  After wiping down with dry paper towels, do it again if needed, or wipe with water-wetted towels, dry and oil with a regular gun oil, not a penetrating oil.  Problem with any cold blues is that they are temporary, designed for touchup work, and if you rub a barrel that it's on with a dry shop cloth, you can smell it.

David
Montezuma, IA

Ditto what Dale said.

It's possible that the smeared surface finish caused by the action of a buffing wheel is a partial culprit for the poor results reported when using a high polish. I don't even own a buffer or a buffing wheel so therefore all my polish work is done by hand, to somewhere between 320 and 600 grit depending upon the application, and I've had splendid results with Oxpho-blue.

A buffed (smeared) surface finish doesn't give good results with color-case work because the smeared surface doesn't take the colors well at all. It occurred to me that the Oxpho-blue might also require a more open-pored surface in order to finish well. Just a thought.

At any rate, I've had almost perfect results on wall barrels by first hand-polishing with abrasives down to bright steel, then degreasing with 1,1,1 Trichloroethane (from Brownell's, but any degreaser should work well), then applying the Oxpho-blue with a new swab, then scrubbing with steel wool. After the third application, the barrel has an almost perfect blue-black coating that appears to be VERY durable.

One caveat: I've found that using a new piece of swab for every new application helps a lot. IOW don't keep using the same swab for more than a few minutes, it seems to pick up contaminants from somewhere and will soon perform poorly. AAMOF it appears that an old swab had contaminated my bottle of Oxpho-blue so that I eventually had to buy a new one. At any rate the contents of the old bottle appear discolored & don't perform well, while the contents of the new bottle perform perfectly.

So nowadays I'm very careful about returning a discolored swab to the bottle, if it's been used for more than a few passes then I discard it and use a new one.
Good luck, Joe

I have never applied a drop of Oxpho to a firearm surface, but I thought I knew something about the product.

After reading one of the responses below, I realized I was talking through my hat.  Having removed my 'idle chatter', I will either keep up or take notes...like everyone else.
CM

I think Montana_Charlie is refering to a product called Ospho that is used to destroy rust. It is used in many industries that have corrosion problems. I have used Ospho on a lot of rusty steel and Oxpho on my guns,Both are excellent products, but they are not the same.

Good morning, Board;

Once upon a time, far far away, on a dark and stormy night, I read that the official Army method for coloring the receivers on springfield rifles was to soak them in sperm whale oil and then burn the oil off.  I suspect that this method was used after case hardening and without polishing so there was some "tooth" on the surface.  But I wasn't there.

You might have a little problem with this solution today.

Y'all be good.

horsefly

I would like to add one little thing. Steel wool often is "oily". You might want to degrease the steel wool before trying to blue a barrel (or receiver).

Just a thought...

Dale53

KWK, you hit the nail on the head, Joe