Naysayers, Defeatists and Misanthropes

 The other day I was going back over some old forum posts by a fellow gun restorer that went by the name DIY_guy. In one of his posts he considering trying anodizing aluminum at home.

There were several misinformed naysayers who claimed it couldn't be done, or wasn't worth the effort or was too dangerous or .......you get the point.

Let's call these people Eeyores......you remember that donkey from Winnie the Poo who always said they were doomed, or "it will never work"?

Reading those comments reminded me of my own experiences with misinformed people.....

I thought I might dedicate a blog post to these Eeyores and dispelling with the cow excrement. Here they are in no particular order.

Leave it to the professionals.....

My father used to tell me that the only REAL difference between a professional and the rest of us is the professional is getting paid to do the work.

My grandparents survived the Great Depression and learned some hard lessons. My paternal grandfather was a farrier and blacksmith, he made his own knives (I own many of his knives, they are crude, but sharp and still rust free after 70+ years). He and my grandmother also raised their own chickens, cows and goats.

My maternal grandparents had a similar story, my mom told me of the time the valley she lived in was wired for electricity, the utility set up the poles and ran a feed to the house, the rest was up to the homeowners. Not knowing anything about electricity, my grandfather went to the local library and checked out a book about the subject and learned how to do it. He and a neighbor ended up wiring everyone's home in the valley. 

These stories are about people without any formal education on the tasks they took on. Which is about as an American thing that you could do. As Americans we believe in independence and self-reliance...something we have gotten away from.

Learning a new skill is good for the soul.....so no I will not leave it up to the professionals.

It's too dangerous.....

Oh you mean like sitting in a 4000 lb metal box traveling at a mile a minute while other 4000 lb metal boxes, traveling at the same speed in the opposite direction, pass you within inches? Or maybe you are talking about the dangers of dispensing liquid explosive by un/undereducated members of the general public??

In case you didn't know, the gasoline we pump into our cars has more potential explosive energy (pound for pound) than TNT or Dynamite...(it's true, look it up...)

Our world is filled with danger, while some of us feel "safe" this is only an illusion. We still need to be mindful and even fearful of other humans, wild animals, inspects, natural disasters, the weather, poisonous plants...ect..ect. 

There are a million ways to die and fear of death will not prevent you from dying, but it might prevent you from living....

There are plenty of precautions and safety equipment to help keep you safe, but like I always say, the best safety is the gray stuff between your ears.

The environment....

This one often chaps my hide....I'll start with a couple of questions....What is "organic"? What is "man-made"? In reality the only items on this planet that did not come from this planet are meteorites and some moon rocks we brought back during the Apollo missions...everything else came from this planet. You can separate things all you want, but that is a fact.

There are places in this world where petroleum oil seeps out of the ground naturally......yet you spill a drop on a public street and somehow you are destroying the environment? Did you know that more than 176,000 tons (160,000 metric tonnes) of oil seep into the ocean waters from cracks in the ocean floor surrounding North America in one year....that is just North America...This a natural process that has been happening for millions of years.

Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting that we go ahead and dump our oil down the storm drains, I am merely stating the facts so that people have a frame of reference.

The chemicals used in hot bluing are lye (sodium hydroxide) and sodium nitrate (potassium nitrate or ammonium nitrate can also be used, all three of which are used as a fertilizer). Which is the exact ingredients used in drain cleaner. Lye is also used in the treatment of sewage as well as food processing. It is the base ingredient in real soap (most "soap" now a days is actually detergent made from petroleum).

Lye is a strong alkali so to neutralize it (bring it back or close to PH neutral) you simply add an acid to it (vinegar, citric acid or the like). I dispose of my old chemicals by handing them over to my county waste disposal unit. I simply label it as drain cleaner. If I were to dump it down the toilet, it would probably be legal and go unnoticed.

You'll destroy the value of the gun......

This is the one that really drives me crazy. I was at a gun show once and saw a Colt model of 1903 that was covered with rust. I mentioned to my Father that it I should buy it and reblue it......some Fudd behind me piped up with "you remove that original finish, and you will ruin its value"....I responded with something about Colts not leaving the factory with rust....the original finish was already gone. Besides collectors do not buy rusty guns, unless A: the gun is so rare that a rusty example is all that can be found or B: they cannot afford to buy a pristine one....in which case the gun did not have "collector value" to begin with.

Now this does not apply to guns once owned by a famous (or infamous) person or used in a historic battle, but the vast majority of rusty guns out there have no "collector value" so you are not ruining anything....unless of course you do a shoddy job of refinishing it.

Here is an example, the work performed by Doug Turnbull, whose work is THE standard upon which all refinishing jobs should be measured

Now are you going to tell me that you would pay more for the gun on the left than the one on the right?....yeah I didn't think so

Blueing is bluing....

So I get this a lot, people think that cold blue formulas are bluing, which they are not...let me explain.

Bluing on gun steel is actually black oxide of iron, a form of iron oxide (rust) that has been converted from red oxide to black by the application of heat. This can be done a few different ways. The old way is to rust the metal using a combination of a mild acid and humidity, once a layer of red rust has formed, you boil the metal converting it to black oxide, then card/polish the loose stuff off and then start the process over again. 

Six to ten applications are required to get the black hue we all recognize. The modern way is using a solution of lye with an oxidizer heated to 270-290 degrees.

Cold bluing is a solution of selenium dioxide and other materials that stain bare steel a blue color. This is not the same. The color looks close, but does not provide the same level of protection, last as long or look as good as real black oxide.

You will never find the parts.....

I see something like this as a challenge, I have been given firearms by frustrated owners that couldn't find the parts to repair the guns. Diligent searching on eBay, Gun Broker and gun shows always results the parts being found....it is actually fun going on the hunt. Patience is the important thing.

in gunsmithing patience is always the important thing....

That's all for now, stay tuned as I have a couple of classic long guns that I need to repair and clean up for a friend.