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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Easy Parkerizing


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I don't recall where I found this formular, I probably copied it from this board.

Has anybody tried this?

Kenny

 

Parkerizing

I knew parkerizing was generally easy, but this was ridiculous! I went from concept to finished test part in less than an hour.

 

Procedure: Go to Home Depot and buy a quart of "Aqua Mix" phosphoric acid cleaner. Look in the ceramic tile section for this stuff. At home, send your wife shopping, then steal a stainless pot that won't be used for food, ever again. Don safety glasses and gloves. Add water (distilled preferable) to the pot. Note how many onces you added.

 

In a 1:24 ratio, add the phosphoric acid cleaner to the water. IOW, if you have 96 ounces of water, add 4 ounces of acid. Turn the heat to slightly above medium. Degrease a chunk of steel wool by soaping it up with Dawn or similar, and add a chunk to the pot, about 1/8th of a biscuit per gallon. It'll begin to fizzle.

 

 

Prep your part. I won't go into detail. It must be CLEAN, and FREE OF OILS. Bead blast, or yopu can use 220 grit wet/dry or a scotchbrite pad to coarsen the surface. For the part in the picture, I simply soaked it in hot "Dawn" while the brew heated. Rinse the part before immersion. Hang it from iron wire, this makes it easy to handle.

 

Heat the brew until it is almost boiling. You'll see some steam, and maybe some bubbles on the side of the pot, but it isn't boiling. Keep the heat there.

 

Immerse the part. Wait 20 to 40 minutes. Rinse in hot water. Soak in WD-40 for a while.

 

The resultant park was as nice as anything I've seen commercially. It was ridiculously easy and cheap. Standard disclaimers... don't be stupid, don't piss off your wife, don't drink acid or bathe in it, etc etc. Be a grown-up. Neutralize it with baking soda and discard.

 

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How do you protect the areas you don't want parked?

 

Also, is the result a greenish or mostly black finish? Photos would be cool!

 

Had a guy in my neighborhood that took in parkerizing as a side job. He had large tanks and could easily do a barreled receiver. He also did some automotive parts for race engines, camshafts in paticular and he also claimed to do crankshafts and other engine parts. He somehow parkerized a camshaft I saw but the bearing surfaces were left untreated. Never made sense to me why a cam or crank shaft need to be parkerized but he claimed he did alot more business for race engine parts than guns or gun parts.

 

I had him refinish and parkerize a heavily rusted and pitted 1903 Springfield bayonet for me. Before you jump on me about destroying the collectablity, it looked horrible and I wanted to save it as a family heirloom. The bayonet was brought home, probably sneaked out in his duffle bag by my great uncle. He claimed it was the bayonet he carried in General Pershing's invasion into Mexico, when the US Army chased Pancho Villa after he shot up a US border town.

 

I was charged an extra 10 bux and he needed to keep it a few weeks for the military type green finish. I've been told and don't know for certain, the green color comes from grey parkerizing being soaked in warm liquid cosmoline. Others have said the greenish color comes from age. Does anybody know how to get the green finish?? I'm not going to do it, just curious.

 

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Had a guy in my neighborhood that took in parkerizing as a side job. He had large tanks and could easily do a barreled receiver. He also did some automotive parts for race engines, camshafts in paticular and he also claimed to do crankshafts and other engine parts. He somehow parkerized a camshaft I saw but the bearing surfaces were left untreated. Never made sense to me why a cam or crank shaft need to be parkerized but he claimed he did alot more business for race engine parts than guns or gun parts.

 

I had him refinish and parkerize a heavily rusted and pitted 1903 Springfield bayonet for me. Before you jump on me about destroying the collectablity, it looked horrible and I wanted to save it as a family heirloom. The bayonet was brought home, probably sneaked out in his duffle bag by my great uncle. He claimed it was the bayonet he carried in General Pershing's invasion into Mexico, when the US Army chased Pancho Villa after he shot up a US border town.

 

I was charged an extra 10 bux and he needed to keep it a few weeks for the military type green finish. I've been told and don't know for certain, the green color comes from grey parkerizing being soaked in warm liquid cosmoline. Others have said the greenish color comes from age. Does anybody know how to get the green finish?? I'm not going to do it, just curious.

 

Does parkerizing hide or conceal pitted areas?

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Does parkerizing hide or conceal pitted areas?

 

Not as far as I know. The pits on the bayonet were rubbed out with a rubber wheel and compound. He got most of them out except the tip and the base close to the hilt. My younger brother and I got caught playing with it and our mother hid it in the laundry room and it was forgotton for almost almost 20 years.

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Does parkerizing hide or conceal pitted areas?

 

No. Its recommended that you blast the steel you wish to parkerize with at least 220 grit to prep the surface for parking. The blasting may help blend small imperfections, but chemical reaction from the park solution will not.

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I used the stuff Midway sells. A little goes a long way, as you dilute it. I used my hot bluing tanks, albeit the small one for this Garand gas tube. I believe they are made of a metal not the same as the rest of the rifle. Here's the parkerized gas tube (after first being bead blasted)---

 

gastube.jpg

 

fritz

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