Old Hombre, New Hombre
A while back I read a bit about Birchwood Casey’s color case-hardening product — an easy way to spruce up an old gun in need of a makeover. I made a little note to myself to look into using some to make my ugly flat-black Uberti Hombre more presentable. The Hombre was one of those impulse purchases at Bass Pro years ago when I saw it tagged at a price somewhat below what I knew my wholesale price to be. The .45 Colt Single Action Army clone shoots fine, but it isn’t something I pull out in front of people if you know what I mean.
During my travels, I found myself at Roy Huntington’s Ponderosa one afternoon for a short visit. As we talked, he was eyeballing the rack on the back of my pickup used for transporting my heavy-duty electric wheelchair.
“Mind if I beef that up a bit for you?” he asked. It was definitely in need of some help, and Roy graciously put his welding skills to work on some much-needed improvements. Meanwhile, I rambled about his shop until I found the bench where he works on his gun projects. Looking at some old S&W revolvers, he was reworking reminded me of the forgotten Hombre project.
“Roy, do you remember that color case-hardening project you mentioned a while back? I’ve got a gun in need of such treatment, but I don’t remember what it is I need,” I said. Roy, being a walking encyclopedia of everything gun-related, knew just what I needed and where to get it.
The Hombre was perfectly serviceable before, but a bit
of a makeover seemed in order to make it special.
Not exceptionally pleased with the initial results, David
used Birchwood Casey’s Blue & Rust remover to strip the
revolver down to bare metal before trying again.
Hombre Makeover
Upon my return to Casa Freeman, I elected to learn some new tricks and ideally turn that Hombre into something special, so I ordered Birchwood Casey’s Perma Color Case Coloring Kit plus a Perma Blue kit.
I took a “before” picture of the Hombre, then went to work. I followed the instructions — honest, I did. I took the gun apart, putting the little pieces into a can so I could spill them all over the floor later and worked over the frame with 600-grit sandpaper.
Once I had the entire frame all 600 gritty, as the instructions recommended, I used the little applicators to rub on each of the three Perma colors — Dark Iridescent, Indigo Iridescent and Multi-Color Iridescent. You apply each color one at a time in the order recommended, rinsing with water between each application. The end result was not pretty, just kind of smudgy. At least it was smooth, right?
David turned the brown patina finish on his Remington 514 to a nice blue using the Perma Blue kit.
Birchwood Casey’s Perma Blue cold bluing kit is handy for touch up or a total refinish job.
Hombre Makeover, Part 2
The instructions say if you don’t like the results, you can try again, so I did. This time around, I used Birchwood Casey’s Blue & Rust Remover, plus a little touch-up with my Dremel to strip the frame down to the bare metal. If you’re following me and you’re going to do one of these, I recommend doing this to start with. With a bare metal starting surface, you’re beginning the process as nature and gunsmiths everywhere intended.
On my second try, I was a little more careful about where I applied each of the colors. Except for not getting any of the deep color swirls I see on my factory-color case-hardened guns, it looks pretty good—way better than it did in flat black. The Hombre has a brass grip frame and trigger guard I polished with Brasso, a skill I learned in Army Warrant Officer Aviator School. Now I’ve got a darn pretty .45 Colt six-gun.
For the first attempt, David sanded the existing surface just enough to rough things up a bit.
Old … And Blued
The Perma Blue kit turned out to be a wise move. I’ve used it for touch-ups before, but this time, I had a particular mission for it. When I was at his place, Roy showed me a Remington 514 single-shot .22 rifle he’d been working on, knowing I have one of those from when I was a kid. Roy added a scope to his, which was definitely not part of the original equipment, but what caught my eye was the absolutely beautiful bluing on the action and barrel Roy indicated was original. My rifle was brown patina. Notice I said, “was.”
After my Hombre job I had enough rust/blue remover to strip my rifle’s barrel and action to bare metal and enough Perma Blue to make it pretty like Roy’s. Now, I’m tempted to get an inexpensive rimfire scope to turn it into a real rifle.
The Birchwood Casey products work as advertised, don’t require expensive tools or equipment and you can use them to turn out a nice-looking project in an afternoon. If you have a well-equipped gun store nearby, there’s a good chance the products you need are in stock. If not, Midway and Brownells are good sources.
I’m already pondering my next project … I think I’ll re-blue one of my 1911s showing some excessive holster wear.
For more info: BirchwoodCasey.com, Brownells.com, MidwayUSA.com
