Cold Bluing Steel - Does hardening make a difference?

Heikki

Heikki

KNIFE MAKER
Like the title says, does hardening a piece of steel (guard, fitting, spacer) have any impact on the finish provided by using Birchwood Casey Cold Blue? I'm working on a hidden tang and was thinking I'd try that as a finish on the guard and spacer.
 
I haven’t done a direct comparison, but I’ve used that stuff on hardened and unhardened steel and never noticed a difference. I use it instead of layout dye sometimes when I want lines to stay for a long time. I don’t know how they “wear” over time.
 
Thanks for the reply. I have a piece of 4130 that I wanted to try using. Guess I should just experiment a bit, but wanted to see what others may have experienced using it.
 
Heikki said:
Thanks for the reply. I have a piece of 4130 that I wanted to try using. Guess I should just experiment a bit, but wanted to see what others may have experienced using it.
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Rust bluing might be the ticket. It’s my favorite finish for carbon steel. You can do a lot of different things with it as far as surface effects, and it is very durable. Plus, if it ever rusts, you just hit it with some steel wool and it’s like it never happened
 
Rust blueing takes some time to do right but is well worth it IMHO. Wears way better than cold blueing.
I'e used the Birchwood and Vans cold blueing on gun parts and had better results with the Vans but that's just me.
 
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