Perfected Traditional Colt Bluing Processes at Brubaker Arms Manufacturing

Mid last year we have wrapped up almost 13 years of trial an error in re-creating the traditional Colt Bluing processes. It's been a long - and expensive! - journey. There are only 5 pages of documented technical information available pertaining to how exactly Colt was bluing his firearms, in order to obtain the distinctively clear blue color. We now offer this special charcoal bluing procedure which closely matches - or, as closely as document doubly possible – Colt’s process for their charcoal bluing. This type of bluing requires cooking all of the parts in the kiln or furnace with a particular type of charcoal and primer which is a type of oil and charcoal mix. This carbonizes and oxidizes the metal at the same time, which is what gives it that blue-black finish. As far as we're aware, Brubaker Arms Manufacturing is the only firearms facility that offers authentic Colt style charcoal bluing. There are a number of other shops that offer a more-blue-than black-hot salt bluing, but the Colt bluing is not a blue black, it's black and blue at the same time - it is hard to describe, but once you see it you recognize it. There is nothing like it. Below, one of the many Colt blued pistols refinished at Brubaker Arms Manufacturing. This pistol was polished to 400 before getting the Colt charcoal bluing finish. No Photoshop on that blue!