Blueing questionfor experienced smith

[SkytopBrewster]

Just did an Enfield, probably my best, difficult to get the color right, I put it in the bath at 260 and brought to 270, removed & rinsed, put it back in and let the temp rise to 280, repeated rinse, put back in to 290, rinsed and put back in till temp was at 290 for another 15 minutes. Each time the receiver got blacker. In the past with different Enfields if I went straight to 290-295 the receiver showed coloring consistant with overheating (red/gold). Overall I am happy with this job but the receiver is not quite as black as the Barrel. I have never used oxynate S, does it work as good as they say???

Just looking for a little advice, these things are common and 2hrs is a bit much to get the color I'm looking for


I should add that even at the low temperature after the first rinse some parts of the receiver were black and some areas stayed gold until finally after the last rinse the whole thing was black, just not quite dark enough for my liking.

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[MagnumMachine]

This is NOT an uncommon thing. Different materials will oxidize at different rates and can oxidize to different colors.
Early Winchesters comes to mind. Their actions were of a unique blend of Chrome moly steel that typically would turn more of a purple color than blue/black. Some manufacturers (Brownells being 1) created specialized salts to deal with this problem.
Heat treat also plays a role in how well or to the extent that steel oxidizes.

I have little experience with Enfields but with many years of refinishing Winchesters and oxidizing stainless steel I found with Brownells #84 salts this problem was solved.