EXPRESS BLUE #1 Reviews & Ratings

Takes a little patience but it does work really well

Used this product for my first bluing project and I will be doing another this week. It is remarkably satisfying to see a neglected finish brought back to life.

Plan on half a day. Follow instructions. Patience!!! Prep work is key. Any surface imperfections will show. I did 12 coats followed by 2 coats of Oxpho. As you progress, the carding with steel wool will become easier and bluing will reveal itself. I do not recommend the stainless carding wheel for this process, I tried it. Ok for prep only. 0000 Steel wool washed in acetone. Leaves and old fashioned blue finish. Coating a Colt 1903 and Browning 1922 pistol after with Oxpho then soaking in oil locked in a deeper black finish. CZ 75 pre B slide came out almost a metallic charcoal grey finish. Have tried at home hot salt finish and this is much safer and convenient to deal with. Be careful if neutralizing with baking soda boil, I added to much and had to card white crust off my Colt, then boiled again in distilled water. A great inexpensive product that will achieve a very beautiful and durable finish. If you can dedicate the time, well worth the effort.

Did the BEST bluing of my life with this product. Better than caustic bluing! Follow directions, of course, and you can't go wrong!

For those not ready for hot caustic bluing, this product will get you to a superior bluing. Heat, blue, boiling water, buff, repeat, repeat. For a minimal investment in tooling and space, the results are superior.

I have used every bluing product on the market and none can compare to Mark Lees product. Follow his instructions to the letter. Prep is the key. You must remove all old rust and bluing. I sanded the metal in steps all the way to 1500 sandpaper( i started at 400). Degreased with lacquer thinner and Dawn dishwashing liquid. Used distilled water for rinse and for boiling. Heated the parts on a gas stove rather than a propane torch. Degreased my steel wool with acetone and lacquer thinner. Did 8 coats of product with sponge brushes boiling 5 minutes and steel wool after every coat. Then reheated and next coat. The results are BETTER than factory blue! I have never seen a better finished product. I had a rusty, pitted marlin lever action and redid the barrel, magazine and several small parts. Looks better than Marlin factory! I did not have rig grease. I used regular gun oil very heavy for 24 hours. Follow the directions! Degrease everything! Do not touch with bare hands!

I used this to re-blue my Ruger Mark II, I only applied 5 coats since I was doing this on the back porch and a storm moved in but I am very happy with the result. I came into possession of a somewhat rusted Mark II and now it looks pretty dang good, luckily the bore was not damaged. Shot it this morning, it's a pretty good shooter and it looks as good as it shoots!

not one to write reviews but express blue did such an amazing job i just had to give it a 5 star!...follow the instructions on the bottle..i sanded to 220 on a terribly rusted barrel..plugged both ends of course..degreased with paint thinner and dawn dish soap..heated barrel with a good heat gun and went through the process of applying solution and boiling for 5 min 6 times..i used some degreased 000 steel wool to polish off residue each time then i soaked in baking soda solution for half hour..at that time i oiled it down and buffed it out with some oiled 000 syeel wool...barrel turned out a beautiful deep dark blue..almost black.

Bought this to blue a Traditions cannon barrel. Used a heat gun, an old metal tray on the gas grill for boiling and a wire wheel brush to card. I was planning on at least a dozen cycles but had a good finish in about 8 cycles. It's been a couple years and the bluing still looks good and hasn't been noticeably affected after shooting black powder (yes, I did give the cannon a thorough cleaning). I would definitely use this again.

Let me preface this by saying I rarely leave reviews. I used the Mark Lee Express Blue to blue a rusted and pitted 870 Wingmaster I rescued from a local pawn shop. Pay attention to your prep work, especially degreasing. As per instructions I heated the metal with a propane torch until it was between 150 and 200 farenheit, then applied the bluing solution. Be advised: it will hiss and boil when it goes on and releases a noxious smell as it evaporates on the hot metal. The instructions say it will require between 6 and 10 applications of the bluing liquid. This is true. It took me 6 trips to the boiling water tank . All together it took me 2 hours to reblue the shotgun. Normally I use Pilkingtons Rust Blue for my bluing work but I may switch to the Mark Lee Express Blue. I'm not sure if I can heat larger pieces like barrels and have the bluing liquid go on as good. Next project will be to reblue a Model 36 S&W. I also want to do a barrel and use a steam setup like Mark Novak does on his Youtube Videos on rust bluing. I wanted to add pics to the review but the photo uploader on Brownells website is not working. Be assured that the finished product will look as good as the derringer the other guy did.