Hey Guys,

I have a question about stainless steel barrels and how to blacken them, at least a portion of it.

Here is what I mean, y'all know I am working on rebuilding this 700 Rem, 7 MM Mag.

Well the barrel is stainless (yes Remington made SS barrels and then blued/blackened them, the color is far more black than blue) with the exception of the muzzle end where the front sight was removed and two carbon screws were lock-tited in place and then ground down to the barrels surface.

The original owner did this and really cobbled the job up, so I took it to a gunsmith and he did a good job cleaning it up, but he put something black on the barrels and screws that has subsequently flaked off.

Two problems that I see are carbon screws and stainless barrel, and I don't think I can get the screws out to replace with stainless screws.

I really do not want to go to the expense of having the barrel re-coated, this whole rebuild is costing more than I anticipated. Is there some spot treatment I can use to successfully blacken just that area?

If you really want it to look good, you probably just need to bite the bullet (pun intended) and refinish the barrel. The barrel of the handgun is stainless steel that had a mil spec black coating applied by SSK Industries. The finish looks nice and is very durable.

There is something called Duracoat some guys use you could apply yourself. I've never used it so won't say yea or nay regarding it.

I have had good luck with Brownells Aluma-Hyde II. A can is not very expensive and does a really nice job if instructions are followed.

www.brownells.com/aspx...spx?p=1117

Personally, I think I would prep and coat the entire barrel, unless the spot needing touched up was very small.

I think that you can get some AR finishers fairly cheap .

Lester,
Brownells sells several finishes that are real tough when applied correctly, Duracoat as mentioned and Guncoat.

Basically the metal is sandblasted for the best adhesion, and then the metal is cleaned and warmed with a hair dryer or in a low heat oven. You spray coat the metal then bake it in an oven at 300-350 for one hour. I have done several stainless/CM combo guns with the matt or brushed stainless spray and it comes out real well.

But you cannot start with a slick finish; it must have a rough texture for the coating to adhere to, so a matt finish is best.

If you want black shiny, you might want to look for black chrome. Unless you go SS to SS the screws will not color the same, except with a covering or coating.

Best,
Ed

hey lester we bought the special salts from brownells that were supposed to blue stainless and it hasn't come out very well yet we did an original 700 like yours and it came out blotchy twice it sounds like your guy used a coating of some sort if its flaking off maybe your gun could be polished and recoated again. any time this is done you usually do the whole thing or you can tell where it stops and starts, if this is the case it doesn't matter what your screws are made of