Hello Folks
              I have a Martini Cadet action that I polished for cold blueing, I cleaned it after polishing and when I tried to apply the blueing compound it ran away from sections like water from oil, I tried two or three times to blue the action after cleaning but I had the same reaction the local smith said he thinks it could have a type of plating although none is visible and that the action would need to be stripped somehow, any ideas.

Regards Trevor

Thank you for the reply I have washed it, scrubbed it, cleaned it, with all sorts of cleaning agents in between each blueing failure, i'm pretty sure it is either a baked on finish or a failed plating.

Regards Trevor

This sounds a lot like silicone contamination. It is very resistant to solvents or any cleaning procedure. I don't allow silicone in my shop.  Maybe, abrasive under running water might remove it, but if it touches anything in the shop it will be re-contaminated. 

If you are living in the house where I contaminated a shop with silicone saddle oil, you have a problem.
Chuck