purple hue bolt handles

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johnohio
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 8:33 pm

purple hue bolt handles

Post by johnohio »

Why do some remington model 700's and 40x's have bolts with a purple tint? Is this fairly common?
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Gamemaster32
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:49 am

Re: purple hue bolt handles

Post by Gamemaster32 »

Many of the vintage Remingtons I've seen circa 1930s & '40s have a plum color to the blued finishes when viewed under differing light conditions. I've always attributed it to natural wear and aging. Dunno...maybe someone will chime in with some good technical knowledge of chemical characteristics. :idea:
johnohio
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 8:33 pm

Re: purple hue bolt handles

Post by johnohio »

I also have one with a copper tint thats new in the box. I have also seen the ring between the action and barrel look purplish. Does anybody else have one that has done this?
Tomygun1
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2019 3:58 am

Re: purple hue bolt handles

Post by Tomygun1 »

Not restricted to Remingtons this is often found. It’s all about metallurgy. The hot nitre blue often used (and others) reacts differently to steel with a high nickel content. Often these parts look perfectly blued but after 6mos or more will begin to turn reddish/purple looking.
Winchester encountered this problem while rust blueing their Nickel Steel bbls. and developed a secret method they called “pickling” to avoid this. Manufacturers could prevent this but the expense just isn’t worth it.
Hope this helps.
Tom
dandak
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2017 9:39 am

Re: purple hue bolt handles

Post by dandak »

Old Ruger blackhawks also often show a purple hue on the loading gate. I was informed that it was due to 'high silica content' in the steel casting. Just the 2 cents I heard...take it for what its worth.
OlderRemFan
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Sep 21, 2019 9:52 pm

Re: purple hue bolt handles

Post by OlderRemFan »

First, I do not have an answer to your specific question. However, a few decades back when I was doing quite a bit of gun bluing, the early Model 12 Winchester barrels would come out of the bluing tank with a very nice plum color when put into the bluing solution that was already heated. By putting the barrel into the bluing solution when it was cold, and then bringing the solution up to the proper temperature, the barrel would be a nice blue-black color. In my opinion, I think it was a combination of the metal content, the bluing solution, and the process used.
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