I'm disassembling and cleaning a Winchester model 06. The gun is in good shape with the exception of the bluing on the receiver. It has a case of 'spots'. There are several spots where the blue is completely off. The spots are, on average, about an 8th of an inch in diameter. It looks like some kind of blue remover has been dribbled on it, but is actually the result of tiny rust spots doing their damage. I'm sure some of you know the kind of spots I'm talking about.

Here's the questions:

1. is there a solution other than blue that will darken the spots, at least somewhat? I'm obviously trying to avoid bluing. If not:

2. Would you put on a coat of cold blue to darken the spots, or just leave it as it is? One problem with leaving it spotted is that the spots will be vulnerable to re-rusting.

3. I really don't want to have it professionally blued and destroy the patina of age. The stocks are aged well.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Ill be watching for this one I have a Marlin 444S that I bought a few years ago that was miss used by the previous owner.

Well, I didn't any responses to this post or another one on another site - I guess it's something folks are uncertain about. So I decided to put on a coat of blue. The white (bare) spots were really distracting. The blue coat didn't eliminate the spots, but it toned them way down, which was what I wanted. Also, the gun is a family gun, so I'm not as interested in collector value as protecting the gun from further rust. The question remains, though: which is more collectable, a gun with serious bluing imperfections, or one that has been lightly re-blued?

Ive seen a bluing pen for sale at the store.. I cant remember the brand name. You could apply the bluing directly on just the spots.

00buck wrote:Ive seen a bluing pen for sale at the store.. I cant remember the brand name. You could apply the bluing directly on just the spots.

I've tried that before on spots, and while it does tone down the spots, it still often looks like what it is - little spots of bluing. It's an improvement over white spots, but I've found that it looks more even if you go ahead and blue the whole area.

But thanks for the input.