Rifle finishes in the past and now

[shortgrass]

I never looked in to bluing, I always seen the perma blue stuff sitting on the shelf at academy so figured it was something you could do at home, then I started reading about it and watching videos...pretty quickly figured out that's not gonna happen. Looks to me like the setup required to do it is highly impractical for anybody who isn't doing several bluing jobs a day. Which makes me wonder how to go about choosing the right smith to do it for you. Do you want the guy that does 1 a month or the 10 a day guy (just randomly pulled those numbers out nowhere, no idea what is realistic)

Most 'average' bluing shops fire-up their tanks once or twice a week. They need 10-12 guns to bother firing the hot tank. Takes lots of energy (gas or propane) to bring 9gal (approx) of the solution to 270 deg. For slower volume shops, the hot tank needs to be 'fired' at least once a month. You want the shop that knows metal prep to do the job. 88% of quality of the job will depend upon the metal prep. I could teach a chimp to mix the chemicals right (with enough of his favorite food, of course).