Saber Forum

I have been debating using some gun blue on an Initiate V3 of mine and I was wondering if anyone else had tried it. If so, does it hold the color well? I would really appreciate pictures if anyone has some.

I don't consider myself an expert on this, but a friend of mine is a gun nut and mentioned to me that it would be difficult, since the saber hilts are made from aluminum and the bluing agent is meant for steel.

Thanks! 😁 I wasn't sure if the aluminum would act weird or not. I might test a spare piece sometime down the road just to experiment, but I certainly won't do my saber unless it works out perfectly.

Aluminum doesn't blue well at all with standard gun blue. Most guns with aluminum parts that are blackened are anodized instead.  I've seen gun-blue anodizing dye, you might look into that. Not that the process involves acids and such so be careful and make sure you triple check your information sources, I've seen some ideas that are down right dangerous.

There are two options to get it to hold a good blue: One, fresh aluminum should hot blue fairly well, that would involve using a mild acid to etch off the aluminum oxide that forms naturally (it's a hard, semi-clear oxide which is why aluminum doesn't rust). A better theoretical option would be to use a mild steel to electroplate the aluminum first. The twitchy thing is that's a very uncommon thing to do, usually you go the other way.

Btw nickle plating won't help any, nickle plating takes bluing worse than aluminum.

I'm not sure how in depth I am willing to go to try bluing my hilt. I really appreciate the information Copperhamster and will definitely do more research if I decide to take that route.

I have seen some people that tried to blue the nickle playing on their gun. That looked terrible!

Could there be a powder coating option that might give you a similar effect?

Not sure. I know a place to get powder coating done and considered it, but I think the bluing would allow for a more worn effect.

Might try dry brushing it; There's a tutorial on here. The best thing there is, if it looks bad get some paint thinner and you can fix that. I personally don't like powder coating on my firearms. Also, getting it done post purchase on something is expensive.

I was considering dry brushing as well. It will probably be the best route. I have never had my firearms powder coated. The place I know has powder coated various bits of other metal for me in the past. I would also be worried about completely gutting my saber for the process.