Prefered method of bluing? (cold, that is)

[Dakota Widowmaker]

I have tried several products/gimicks over the years.

Birchwood Casey and their "PermaBlue" and SuperBlue are well intentioned, but, they do wear off.

Oxfo and 44-40 are also nice, but, they wear off faster than real hot salts bluing

The only one that has me REALLY interested in redoing a full firearm is BlueWonder.
(but, it often turns more black than blue after just a few coats of the stuff)

For those that have had success with B-C, please share your thoughts and recipe for good quality deep bluing...

[Virginia Gentleman]

None of the cold blues including Blue Wonder come anywhere close to the durability of hot blue, rust blue, carbonia blue or even Nitre Blue.  If you are doing a handgun a pot of boiling water, steel wool and cotton rags are all you will need to do a nice Belgian Blue that is very durable like a full rust blue only more blue than black.  Brownells sells it for about $30.00 and you will be able to do many guns.

[44caliberkid]

I prefer Birchwood casey cold blue. I've used Wonder Blue and thought it sucked, too labor intensive to get a good result, especially since it is so expensive.  Maybe that's why it's called that, cause after you try it you say, "I wonder why that cost so much?"  I've tried Brownell's cold blue but it didn't cover as well as B-C, although I now have some 44-40 Brownells cold blue to try.
The secret to good results is surface prep, surface prep, surface prep, and did I mention surface prep.  After you get 'er polished to the extent you want, use a high quality degreaser and then don't touch the thing with your bare fingers, or the blue won't take where you touch it.