1 Hour Red Rust Bluing 

"If you are married, that would be a hazard to your health".... Thanks for making my day!

This method is perfectly viable for naturally rusted stuff as well. Just give it a good scrubbing in warm soapy water, rinse and boil it for a few minutes and the Fe3O4 conversion will take place! Thank you for this video thecogwheel!

Something to be mindful of during this process is that the rusting phase will create magnetite and haematite. Boiling the part will convert haematite to magnetite, however it will not be a dense layer that magnetite usually forms. Which is why it is important to wipe away the loose haematite deposits. Also, the longer you wait for each rusting phase the thicker and more porous your final layer will be. This is a time consuming process because you have to limit each rusting phase to a very thin deposit or brush off 90% of the rust deposit since it was too loose to be useful.

Very Good! I will be using this on all my work from now on. Down here is south Texas we get cold fronts, then they back up as warm fronts, humidity will condense on everything in the shop. This will cut down on my rust remdiation A LOT!!!! Thank you.

I surfed the web to learn this process too. Did nearly the same as you on a single bit axe head. I think three times but only used cold tap water. I didn't know about immersing in hot to set black. Thanks for the tips.

I wouldn't have cared even if this didn't work, that intro sold me. Thanks for the video, really appreciate it!

Great mix of practical advise coupled with some of the scientific information that helps us all learn and understand - thanks!

Worked perfectly for me. Thank you Sir! I learned a new skill today. As a side note: I just rinsed the rusty paste off under the tap every time before I dunked it into the boiling water.

Enlightening!! Super easy way to rust blue parts at home! Thx for the great info!

Just trying this and a big thanks for a simple straight forward video. This is much cheaper than cold bluing solution.

Thanks for your hard work and effort!

Hello, thank you so mutch for your video. I just finish to blue a part with your technique. Result amazing. Thanks.

I'm here in the philippines, thanks for sharing such a wonderful info and works... Great skill..

Great solution for home bluing. Thanks for showing.

Beautiful results. I am definitely going to try it.

Great video, looking forward to give it a try. Thank you

I cant believe I haven't heard about this sooner. I'll give this a try myself. Thanks!

the hydrogen peroxide can rust the parts too quickly and cause pitting, which might not be much of a concern for clamps but it's good to keep in mind. there are some rust bluing methods that employ peroxide, but for saline solutions and a durable even coat of black iron oxide; coat the parts in the saline and leave in the shop overnight/until copper colored, boil, remove non-adherent black oxide with mild abrasives and minimal force, and repeat that process until the desired finish is reached. second pass of rust bluing will be bronze-colored, so on and so forth.

Finally I found a rust bluing tutorial! great! thanks for that. What I want to achieve is brown rust patina like you find on old door knobs. Let's see if this process can be used.

Great video. Thanks for taking time to post

5 lbs Sodium Hydroxide (lye), 2 1/2 lbs Sodium Nitrate and 1 gallon distilled water. Mix together and bring up to around 300 degrees (be careful when mixing because it generates heat) and put your parts to be blued in for around 20 mins and rinse off and coat with oil and your done. You can use Ammonium Nitrate instead of Sodium Nitrate but that releases toxic ammonia gas so best to do that outside. Ammonium nitrate can be found in the CVS brand instant cold packs.

5% vinegar is what you normally use for pickling called 50 grain you can get 10% called 100 grain at the store too. Been rust blueing for years with nitric acid.

great music and information, cheers from Florida, Paul

Great, now I need a hotplate, money money money... lol, jk. Great video, not many options around here to find cold bluing solutions and stuff. Always a pleasure to learn new things, thanks for the video 👍😁👍.

This is an informative awesome video. Its amazing what those Canadians can accomplish lol!

Black oxide coatings on tools are my favorite. Nicely done sir.

This is magical. I am trying to black out my motorcycle and for the usual nuts and bolts I just buy new ones that come in black. But there's this one pesky brake lever part that's very specific to the bike that you can only get it in silver. I was contemplating spray painting it but it's a functional moving part, so I don't wanna gunk-up a life-saving mechanism. I think your process is perfect for this purpose. I think i might just do that side that's visible just to preserve as much material strength as possible.

hahaha dihyro.. good one.. didnt even notice at first. i was like ok some chemical. Beautiful results in little time with simple and safe chemicals. Thanks

Nicely done. Informative!

Nicely done Justin! ATB, Robin

Nicely done. Most impressed w 11+k subs and no ads! Loved the music. Electrolysis to convert the red iron oxide to black iron oxide might work more painlessly. I know it removes "rust" and the parts look black afterwards, but I'm not sure it's actually converting Fe2O3 to Fe3O4. Thanks for the video.

Thanks for sharing it! I'm gonna try it with my old cast iron pan. Would it work start by boiling a rusted piece (not the pan) as first step?

Its taken me most of the weekend but I think I have it right and repeatable. I followed Justin's method and also read the blog he linked in the info and like he said and its read some changes may need to be made but on both instances its a really great start. The TSP was a great degreaser, follow Justin's amounts. I used both 3% & 6% hydrogen peroxide I found using 3% required an extra tablespoon of salt and required 1 less for the 6%. I used the same amount about quater of a cup. Heat it up as per the video. I used 8% acidic vinegar same times displayed in the video. I brushed it on as per the video, dried it off with a heat gun as per the video I just gently wiped of the bubbly bits before putting it in the boiling water. I live in Brisbane Australia and our tap water worked no differently than using demineralised water, I tried both. I followed Justin's instructions and ecthed the parts straight out of the water. Once etched I dried them off and followed the process from step 2 through to 5 until I was happy with the black oxide finish personal preference. If your strapped for time doing the final boil for 10 minutes works just as good as 20 minutes. Changing the water before the last boil isn't a must from what I tell it keeps the oil cleaner without transferring red oxide residue. I tried 3 types of oil soak, vegetable oil, mineral oil and new engine oil. Forget the engine must have something to do with the detergents in it. Vegetable oil worked well but mineral oil (baby oil) worked best. Oil soaking time didn't effect anything if I soaked overnight or soaked it until it cooled down. All in all in, my first time doing any black oxidising it was great fun i learnt so much about household chemicals, Justin's video has an excellent explanation and easy to follow process. All ingredients purchased from the supermarket except hydrogen peroxide i purchased that from my local chemist. Give it a try. Thanks for sharing it.

Great demonstration and excellent results!! I've done this a few years ago on an axe head and some other small homemade (ugly) tools, I had good results with a mixture of just H2O2 and table salt for my rust-inducing solution, but it wasn't as fast acting as yours!

keep up the good work. love the pod cast

Looks easy as hell.thank you. Btw after etching would that solution added with coroded steel wool give more thickness at once?thanks again.

I like the rust bluing, going to try that out.

Hi, thank you for sharing this process. Amazing. I have tried it today and I am stunned by the results. After the 3rd boil, I tried buffing the parts lightly with fine steel whool. This works great, it really brings the deep colours out. Also, it seemed that after steel whooling, the next layer was more uniform. So, I did a few more and the parts look fantastic!

This is an excellent video.

great info on the Bluing, Thanks!

Will this work on stainless steel, like socket head cap screws that you want to have a black finish on, for appearances? Thanks. Great video and can't wait to try it.

Great idea I need to try this out myself

I like this process. How do you scale it up to boil parts that cannot fit into a rice cooker/hotpot? I have a farriers rasp and a drawknife that need doing.

As a Dutchman I'm happy to find the easy and cheap bluing method. Thank you

The old 'Brown Bess' blunderbuss were rust-blued, but the rusting chemistry was different. Antimony salts were commonly used...you'd get a deep purple-brown finish. Was common to 'scald' steel parts using cooking oil after they were colored...like seasoning a frying-pan.

Steam works great and it's fast for rusting.

Thanks for nice video. What is the abrasion resistance?

I miss your contents so much I'm back to re-watch your old videos again, hope you are safe and ok!

Would placing the parts straight into a container with the peroxide mix for a few minutes and then in to the hot water work at making the end result quicker and easier or just destroy the parts, thank you for your video

How passive layer can turn red again when you brush it ? also use amonium nitride for elevating water boiling temp.

I've always used a heated mixture of salt and vinergar and soaked the parts in it until the desired color is acheived then rinse with soada water and thoroughly dry and oil. It's much safer and no worry of embrittlement on hardened parts.

Nice vid! the Dutch flag when saying the word cheap... awesome ;-) (i am Dutch)

Worked great

final, a homebrew recipe! 3 questions: 1) is the etch absolutely necessary? look to do some close tolerance parts, would rather not etch. (yes I know the blue is also effecting tolerances) 2) why not dip the parts? you'd have to mix new solution each coat, or maybe just each batch if your quick. be a lot quicker & prob more even, no? 3 its been a few years now, how's the finish holding up?

This is similar to Mark Lee rust bluing. What volume is the hydrogen peroxide used in the video?

Great video thank you

Question; did you use distilled/demineralized water or just regular tap water? My tap water has a lot of minerals so I'm curious if that makes a difference. Edit: I guess I should have watched the video all the way through before asking questions

I use a vinegar, salt, hydrogen peroxide bath to etch some of my carbon steel knives. May try doing a vinegar etch and then a hot hydrogen peroxide and salt bath in the future to see how it compares. Any idea what temp is the conversion happening at? And can you get the conversion using time rather than temp, or some other process / chemical? I'd be iffy boiling a blade that had a handle already attached, that's asking for the epoxy / handle material to be compromised. (I'll often take the blades out of the acid bath and put them straight into a tank of water for a few hours, seems to "set" the etch. That or bring them right in the house and run hot water over the blade for about a minute, that seems to have the same effect).

Good video. Thanks

I'm having a problem where whenever I finish step 5 and go back to step 2, the vinegar eats through the blackened steel and leaves me with bare steel again. Any suggestions?

would a salted lemon work for a rust solution?

what salt do you mix with hydrogen peroxide? and what temp do you boil ?

You can do traditional bluing at home! It’s no more caustic than using draino to unclog a drain. In addition, it produces a hell of a lot nicer finish than this method.

so what happens if you start by degreasing and then boil the parts and add the peroxide to the boiling water?

When you say it can effect the hardness in metal will it be more than the slow rust bluing process?

I want to blue-black some screws I bought from the hardware store. They are shiny, probably a cad coating. Will your procedure work or do I need to d0 something first to get rid of the coating?

Any reason not to dunk the parts in the nacl/h2o2?

what percentage h202 do you use

Would this finish be suitable for my jeep bumpers? They are raw steel atm. I think it'll look cool after it weather's a while just curious about rust prevention. I live in the desert by the way

Hi, What hydrogen peroxide percentage did you use for this process.

Can you use this method on hardened knife steel like 1084 ?

thanks for sharing!

What is the strength of you hydrogen peroxide? Also I tried this, and the results are very patchy, it does not give a uniform coat, even after very thorough degreasing. The black stuff can also be wiped off by hand. What could I do wrong?

This process does not affect the form of the steel? size? Specially, if there’s fine threads on the part that is being process?

Great video! Do you think can be done on guns?

So will the result slow down rust?

Baking the parts at 375F for a few hours will relieve the hydrogen embrittelment. I work in aerospace plating and we deal with H.E. every day and that is the standard to deal with it.

Greetings, sir, how much is the concentration of hydrogen peroxide

Would it work on zinc?

I have better luck using gun bluing and a torch. While it's hot, I put it in burnt motor oil. I use 0000 steel wood to clean the parts up. It takes about 3 treatments. I do a final dip in clean motor oil and use a rag. I made a hitch pin for my riding mower to pull my lawn aerator. It'll last about a month, but I still got some rust on it. The only thing that helps is using a clearcoat finish.

Nice work. You mentioned hydrogen embrittlement on harder steels, what did you make your clamps out of? Thanks. R.J.

Terrific thanks

Will this work on aluminum as well

Heat the blocks up with a torch then dip them in oil, blackens instantly and rust proofs them.

Justin, Will this work on mild steel? I tried it a week or so ago on 1018 and it didn't really seem to take.

Is it the boiling witch causes hydrogen embrittlement?

Can i just throw my rusty wrenches into boiling water, and the rust will convert into black rust? That would be a great method to refurbish old tools! Gonna try it tomorrow.

Is this method suitable for painting weapons?

What would you recommend doing before or after this process to give it a shiny gloss, like polishing with sandpaper?

Great video, what type of oil do you use at the end?

Does this work with steel or iron?

this method will be very useful to me in making dark chainmail. mind if i mirror this on my channel?

Its about the 5th time I've watched this video (this time copying the process into my shop notebook) and I just noticed that your Hot Air Gun is PowerFist... I got one of the 1st ones, and it is yellow... So, where abouts are you?

So you create rust to prevent rust?

Just imagine what a boon to Zerust turning this into aerosol can product would be!

Great bluing technique ! I'm going to try it. Up to now, I've been using a jeweler's patination product, which works very quickly, but it's toxic, so your approach should be better. BTW, the TSP isn't great for the environment. Thanks again for the videos and be careful with that dihydrogen oxide (aka oxygen dihydride).

I've rust blued 4 or 5 firearms now and it takes about 20 hours per gun. The commercial rusting solutions they sell take about 3 hours to work with the gun suspended in a hot moist environment. I don't understand why your home-made solution works so fast!

I believe another name that the give stronger acetic acid is cleaning vinegar, though I've never been able to find anything stronger than ordinary vinegar in New Zealand. I might try distilling it at some stage

I'm trying to do this to a steel coffee table but it's all 1 welded piece and I can't find a container to boil something that big in. Would a hot water spray work as well?

Can it be polished?