Blackhawk Restyle

I like the rounded gate myself.

Nice looking project gun though!

I never liked the look of the flat loading gate.

Have you seen the scalloped loading gate mod that Hamilton Bowen does on some of his single actions, especially the lightweights? I think that's sharp looking.

Yep, toyin with that too....it'd be simple enough to do by hand on on the gate and the lower portion of the right side of the frame....

But then I'm gonna be sorely tempete to get jiggy with a matching scallop of the left side recoil shield and I am totally positive without a mill or at least a lathe and cross slide table I will have two scallops of differing depths, widths and all crookedified.

So, I'm thinkin gate mods that can be done at home w/o a mill and flat lends itself. I could also do a backwards P gate or perhaps shape the gate itself so it mimics the shape of the grip.

Trust me....goin trout fishin and turkey huntin first....then on the stool, stare it cold and get jiggy with the files and stuff. I'm thinkin its gonna be a two beer job.

I like the flatgate look of the single six. I spent a lot of time carving up masking tape shapes on the gate looking for something I liked better than flat.....it wasn't happenin for me. But I hear ya and after some research, seems the primary complaint is not enough thumb grab to open it easy and quickly. So.......I still want a flat gate, but it needs a thumb groove behind it. I decided on a semi flat gate....a bit thicker than ruger used to put in and add in a good thumb groove to flick it right and down. Combined with the groove in the frame it feels pretty good....guides the thumb into place and clicksnap its open.

First, a rough sail shape for the final sight that will go on the front of the barrel. A brass bead for durability. And, some scribe lines on the face of the loading gate to ensure even file work at the end.



I filed first down to the outer line only....I need to visualize the thinner and flatter gate but leave enough meat to center and file in the thumb groove out back. The extra lines on front help me sight in the start point for the thumb groove and keep it running evenly left, right and up, down.



Once the initial thumb groove is filed in, I filed down to line number two and off to the drill press with the small 80 and 120g sanding drums....and some water to dip the part...and my fingers in! Don't worry, ya can't hold it long enough to get it hot enough to draw the temper. But, its not hard metal afterall but its good metal and takes a lovely even finish at 120g.



At this point, I've deepend the thumb groove quite a bit and gone back to the flat face to file down to line number 3. In addition, I've hand filed a slight chamfer between lines three and four. Not much, I don't want to have the gate edges too far under the mating edges of the frame but I do want a chamfered edge. It'll make the crescent moon shape on the flat face smaller and better looking.....we'll see that in another photo. But for now, the rough in chamfer followed by a kiss on a loose 220g belt to smooth it up and blend the chamfer out just past line number four.



The chamfer, blended, after a kiss on that well worn and durn near worn out 220 belt.



And here, the new undercut for the tip of the thumb and the smaller sized crescent flat facing the shooter.

A few pics in place....after I stopped playin with it....open, close, open, close, open, close....



The shooters eye view....



Thumbed open....



The unloading view....Now that the big blob of metal behind the loading gate is pared inward or off, I think it'll give some more knuckle room to grab onto them cases that just start out of the chamber and get em pulled out and ready for fresh loads....



I didn't press the final shaped front sight home....still gotta blue it and the slot but from a few feet back the photo starts to give an idea of the look.....gotta use yer imagination and see the rear sight wings out back for balance......



Getting close now....almost time to blue!

Loading gate, before and after.

Man! I'm getting antsy waiting on some more updates. This is turning out to be one fine piece!

I'm getting antsy too. Currently engaged with field training exercises and the schedule is absolutely nutso. I'm pretty sure I'll be jumpin back in to it mid month. Goal is to try to get it blued and done in May.

Time to see if Ruger steel is easy to rust....blue that is....rust blue. Folks say its hard to get it other than purple....I say that's cause they hot tank blue it too hot!

With luck, its less hard to rust blue than a 94 Winchester receiver, which I must say, takes a bit of work but in the end, rusts/blues pretty quickly using this old school method.

First step, clean up all the small parts and the cylinder. Get the old blue off with a simple wire brush in a drill press at 3000 rpm....a nice matted finish and I find a few small pits in the cylinder.....no worries, they weren't really visible before and they should hide just as well when I'm done. In the end, they are deeper than I want to polish out....leaving either divots or making the cylinder a bit smaller. The matt wire brush finish and kissing the cylinder with 120 and 220 (since large surfaces are difficult to wire brush finish evenly, but the 120/220 kiss will matt it nicely and have all the lines going round and round the cylinder....I finished the lines in the flutes front to back).

For this batch, only the cylinder is final finished with sandpaper, all the rest of the small parts are kissed matt with the wire brush. Here they are, degreased and awaiting the first very wet coat of Pilkingtons and the first 1 hour sit (second coat is nearly dry and a 3 hour sit, then the first boil tonight!)



10 minutes into the first wet coat, the steel is already beginning to color and develop a light bloom of rust. This bodes good tidings for the job. Lots of contours to deal with and depending on how these parts color up over the next days will dictate whether I rust blue the entire gun or try out a home hot tank blue instead. I am not looking forward to carding and dealing with all those curves, nooks and crannies....revolvers are hard to rust blue!



The flat gate is a bit different alloy, not hard but seems to puddle the solution. It may need a more matted finish than wire brush, it may just need The Special-High-Intensity-Treatment to get it to start a nice bloom of rust for blackening....much like Win 94 receivers and Marlin Magazine Tubes.



That'll be neat looking, a greyblack dot were the steel of the ejector rod comes thru the brass ejector button....



One hour from now, the second coat and then three hours later, first boil. Should be able to boil again twice tomorrow before I go visit a buddy and maybe up to 2 or three more times Sunday. With luck and good Southern Humidity, my Garage-Come-DampBox will do its usual good job and I'll know by Sun/Mon whether to continue the frame and barrel for rust bluing or start some experimentation on scraps of gun steel via drain cleaner caustic/hot blue....(yep, drain cleaner, that's what yer factory gun and custom gunsmith hot blue gun is blued with....really expensive batches of what is pretty much strong household drain cleaner)

Ya can infer a lot about steel from rust bluing. For instance, here in the first two photos, about one hour into the first coat/first rusting......the cylinder is coming along nicely....while the formerly Green ejector rod is not rusted or colored a bit. Also, the Front Sight blade, also resisting rusting. The steel with the least rust resisting alloy appears to be the Cimarron cammed ejector rod housing. Its rusting quite nicely and faster than the rest.



Though puddled at first, the flat gate seems to bloom more quickly than the cylinder pin......I spose the no load bearing gate is a less expensive/less hard alloy than the pin.



And here, seconds after applying a second coating of Pilkingtons......more and almost instant rusting of all but the ejector rod.....that ol rod is prolly gonna have to get The Special-High-Intensity-Treatment....I don't wanna have to cold blue it if I can avoid it. Time will tell.







And the Special-High-Intensity-Treatment? I keep wetting the resistant parts down every 30 minutes or so for the next three hours to encourage the beginnings of rust,,,,from there, these resistant parts will typically keep up with the rest and color out quite the same. Fingers crossed.

Woo hoo, ejector rod is starting to rust.

Oh No, front sight is not....

4 hours of rusting....a light coat on all the bare metal.



15 minutes boiling in water will convert red ferric oxide to black ferro ferric oxide....then card with 0000 steel wool, sauce, rust, boil and repeat up to 10 more times till its right.

Nope....this does not hurt the chambers, bores, nooks, crannies or anything else. Its rust bluing.....same finish as factory hot bluing, just a different path to target.

15 minutes at a rolling boil and I can see the parts have blackened. There will be lots of fluff on the metal, I'll card it off with 0000 steel wool. Under it all will be the first translucent black grey coloring of the steel.



A better first bloom than I thought I'd have given the humidity and temps are just high enough. All that black fluff has to come off, its not color, just residue.



After carding with steel wool. Translucent black grey, we'll continue the process for several days in 3 to 12 hour increments building the color and depth with each succeeding cycle of rust, boil, card, repeat.



The cylinder faces are fine, the circumference a touch splotchy but it should even up fine. As for these parts, mucho bettero than I'da thoughto....(we had Mexican for dinner).

Humidity is down to 42% in the garage. Tonight will be a true slow rust blue. If its not back above 50% tomorrow evening I'll move the parts to my trusty damp box. A cardboard box with a wet paper towel in the bottom, a mug of hot water and a towel over top. 60F and up is fine, just need a scooch more humidity to speed up the process, of course, slow rust blueing, so speed up is a relative phrase.

Lets see...."They" say Blackhawks are hard to blue. In so far as these parts are concerned and using traditional rust bluing methods....Not! Though I've yet to hot tank blue one I'd likely indicate the steels are very blueable and if it turns purple or red....check your technique and heat, one or both is wrong. Last evenings overnight rust cycle produced very fine grained and even rust on all the parts.







After a morning boil, note the black coloration, even thru the fluff appears more even and the coloration will be much darker grey black after carding off the residue. (Closing the garage door last evening kept the temperature near 70F and the humidity climbed to a 3 am high of 60%+.....near perfect for slow, Slow Rust Bluing. For now, I have plenty of other things to do so will continue with Garage as Damp Box....no need for steam or artificially created humidity.



The carding process, on the left, residue on the gate, on the right, the beautiful deep grey black satin bluing that will show on the entire piece when completed.



And here, the cylinder carded. Dotted with flecks of steel wool but blacker than grey very early in the process and the finish is very well evened out. From here, 3 to 5 more cycles of sauce, rust, boil and card to achieve a good finish. Really, doesn't take any longer than the 5 to 6 hours needed for hot tank blue, work is distributed in increments over several days....and no caustic burns and no risk to your vision should you be unwise enough to attempt hot tank caustic bluing with out proper personal protective equipment.

Three almost dry coats of sauce and a 24 hour sit at an average 65F and 50% humidity. Rust. Lovely! Whatever anyone else may think of a Ruger Lightning conversion, no one can say I have not well and thoroughly rusted these particular action parts. Half way. Several 3 hour rust/boil cycles and tonight, these will either be done or I will place them in the ready for 1 to 2 more 12 to 24 hour rust cycles.

Even, fine grained and a beauteous bloom of oxide.



The coating is so fine and upon carding I find the color of the cylinder pin, sight and ejector rod nut to be complete.....I card and set them aside. They will rest a day in the final treatment....a wipe down of 50/50 Rig grease and Hoppes 9 gun oil.



And here, the smutted parts directly from Boil #3, toweled off and blown dry and allowed to cool before carding and subsequent application of Pilkingtons which will continue to build color and depth as needed on the large parts like the gate, cylinder and ejector rod housing.



The cylinder, half way thru the carding process. Smut carded off the faces and top half of the cylinder......the bottom half remaining to be carded. The color is even and spot free. Everything is carefully handled with clean paper towels to prevent fingerprinting that at this stage will be retained in the finish (necessitating full strip and reblue!). Careful and clean is the watch phrase.

Parts are in for the fourth boil. Should be able to cycle at least twice more and a 24 hour sit for final carding and oiling on Monday evening. Its hard at this point not to run down to the shop and buff out the frame. But patience prevails, its size and many contours merit taking it slow and doing it well......fingers tapping anxiously on the table top.

Humidity stayed just over 50% today but the temps dropped into the low 60s and rusting just wasn't happenin at a pace that I was happy with. So after the fifth boil and carding I broke out the ever cheep (repurposed cardboard box and coffee mug and cheep red towel) ever effective damp box for the final cycle or two of rusting. In with the carded and sauced parts. Wet paper towel on the bottom, a spacer to keep the parts out of the wet. A hot, durn hot, boilin furiously mug o water for humandidity and warmnessification and drop on the red towel to keep it in.

I located one lil dark spot on the cylinder, next to some pitting. Mighta been a touch of oil contamination but I doubt it cause its darker. It should blend well but either way, its small enough I ain't strippin the cylinder back to bare.

So, a shot of the high tech and totally Green/Recycled/Repurposed damp box assembly......3 hour wait then a boil and another overnighter to keep the process goin.

This may be the best thread on the internet. Nice work.

Not quite the best. I'd have to rank Mall Ninja in the top five, specially the part where he wears double sapi plates on the back so he can dive on shoppers absorbing 308 AP hits to protect them.