Blueing Golf Clubs

[yeahright]

I was just wondering if anyone out there has every blued the head of a putter or club at home, and how difficult it was and how time consuming it was?

[Gapwedge]

I have blued two putters and re-blue my wedges (Vokey Oil Can) every year. It is not hard nor time consuming, but it sure does stink up the kitchen. Make sure you do a good strip of the old finish (leave the clubs in Coke or Pepsi overnight). I buy lots of gunblue and do an immersion soak (5 min), followed by a 0000 steel wool scrub, another immersion, followed by a final scrub. Wash off in warm soapy water and you're done. Keep the gunblue for the next time.

Remember to wear gloves, as the oil on your hands can cause finish problems.
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Caravan

[Gapwedge]

I have blued two putters and re-blue my wedges (Vokey Oil Can) every year. It is not hard nor time consuming, but it sure does stink up the kitchen. Make sure you do a good strip of the old finish (leave the clubs in Coke or Pepsi overnight). I buy lots of gunblue and do an immersion soak (5 min), followed by a 0000 steel wool scrub, another immersion, followed by a final scrub. Wash off in warm soapy water and you're done. Keep the gunblue for the next time.

Remember to wear gloves, as the oil on your hands can cause finish problems.

Forgot a step. Make sure to rinse off the coke / pepsi before the soak - warm water is fine. I sometimes use the 0000 steel wool at this stage to make sure the finish is completely removed. Rinse after you do this, to make sure all steel wool is removed.

Again - wear gloves from the moment you dip the clubs in coke / pepsi to the final wash after the blue-ing.
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Drug testing

[yeahright]

Thanks for the info. What brand of gun blue did you use?

[Gapwedge]

Thanks for the info. What brand of gun blue did you use?

I use whatever I can find in sufficient quantity. Last time I used "Outers". Before that was something else. Any gunshop should carry gun blue. I usually get mine at Canadian Tire.
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Chrysler Falcon

[kilmidyke]

Once did a couple with a Birchwood casey kit I got off ebay. pretty good results, but if i do it again, it'll be the immersion method as above. Trying to do the wipe on method is more likely to leave a streaky finish even with the 0000 scrub. Mine didnt last as long as a factory or pro finish would but then again, I didnt pay factory or pro prices!....and it's kinda fun!

Liam.

[sharon.gmc]

My father re-blued my wedges and I didn't find it difficult.

[quinner]

Pardon my ignorance, but what's the point in "Bluing" your wedges? Is it strictly cosmetic? Can you post some pics, I am interested to see a finished wedge.

Thanks.

[bNeill]

What finishes can you apply it to and how long does it last? thanks.

[Gapwedge]

Pardon my ignorance, but what's the point in "Bluing" your wedges? Is it strictly cosmetic? Can you post some pics, I am interested to see a finished wedge.

I started with the oil can finish, and when it started wearing off, decided to strip it off completely. I found the stripped wedges to be too distracting (too shiny) and decided to try darkening them with the gun blue. I found the gun blue finish lasted longer than the original oil can, and (frankly) I like the look a lot better.

Maybe this will sound funny, but when I look at these wedges on the course, I feel completely confident that my shot will turn out the way it should.

Pictures come in two batches (due to five picture limit).

Shot 1: The original wedge with oil can finish
Shot 2: The gun blue agent I used
Shot 3: The Coke soak
Shots 4 and 5: The stripped wedges
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BMW 6 SERIES HISTORY

[Gapwedge]

The finished wedges.
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VAPOR LOUNGE

[iroc]

i used g96 gun gluing creme turned out not bad
first pic is putter when i got it and so on and so forth
my sv wedges are the black nickel finish that i just thought he what the hey the g96 went right through it all the longer you leave on the darker it gets and rinse off with cold water

[leftylucas]

Gap wedge, those are beautiful. I will attempt this but if you dont mind telling me how long do you crub with the 0000 and how hard? I have never done this so I apppreciate your help. Soakin stuff is easy but buffing may require more detail. Where do you get the supplies, CT??

Thanks, Luc

[iroc]

My wedges did not need anything for prep. just washed them down and blued once they were dry and washed off with cold water. the g96 gun blue creme is what i used. now these were the black nickel wedges in the sv line. i did no prep.

which wedges are you attempting to blue?

[leftylucas]

They are all Titleist, two are oil cans, one is chrome the other I am not sure

[iroc]

ok the 2 oil cans you can do forsure put in coke over night steel 0000 and get to a shine with a whatever u have handy everyone uses different things sand paper supper fine grit for the end, u can also try to use CT bluing kit but bye a whole bunch of 4oz bottles and do a submerge its all up to you. the chrome will not work as you would have to get them de-chromed and the other just do a magnet test to it.

[Gapwedge]

Gap wedge, those are beautiful. I will attempt this but if you dont mind telling me how long do you crub with the 0000 and how hard? I have never done this so I apppreciate your help. Soakin stuff is easy but buffing may require more detail. Where do you get the supplies, CT??

Thanks, Luc

Before the blueing, I am rather aggressive (well, as aggressive as you can be with 0000 steel wool). My goal here is to remove as much of the old finish as possible. Sometimes the Coke does not take off all the old finish, so I focus on those areas a bit more. After the blueing, I am much more gentle - almost a light buff (not a lot of pressure). It's more like a polish to take off any imperfections from the immersion.

I would also suggest doing a quick immersion first (say 20-30 seconds) to see how the finish 'grabs'. Not all gun-blue is the same. If you're happy with the results from a quick dip - no need to do more.

I stay away from sand paper / emory cloth, as it is rather easy to scour or create scratches that are hard to remove.

Everything I needed came from CT.

Good luck. Rob
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Michigan Medical Marijuana Dispensary

[jonf]

i used g96 gun gluing creme turned out not bad
first pic is putter when i got it and so on and so forth
my sv wedges are the black nickel finish that i just thought he what the hey the g96 went right through it all the longer you leave on the darker it gets and rinse off with cold water

That Scotty looks niiiiiiice. Might have to do that to mine before the season starts. Certainly more affordable than sending it to the shop.

2 quick questions: The finish won't stick to paint, right? And how well does it last / does it need special care once it's done?

[luigicactus]

Another nice alternative is black oxyde. You can do that in a similar fashion then gun blueing.
Deerslayer, a member of golfwrx.com, has a custom shop in Texas (customclubworks.com) and did a pretty nice DIY instruction page : http://customclubworks.freewebspace....deProcess3.jpg

Im considering doing that myself on my clubs, so I contacted Caswell and their product cost about 50$ (taxes and shipping included). Seems a bit expensive to me, but Deerslayer says that you can reuse it for clubs after clubs, so it will last a long time. If any of you would like the info on the product, you can PM me.

Anybody knows if you can reuse the gun blueing products as well??

[Hacker]

I am so stripping and refinishing my spinmills.............how long does it take to strip the oilcan finish in the coke bath??

[luigicactus]

From my personnal experience, an overnight bath takes off most of the finish, but with coke, there is always a bit left so a scotchbrite pade could be use to remove the rest. You can also Naval jelly in a ziploc bag for about 15 minutes and then scotchbrite.
Make sure to use a degreaser to remove any finger print. I used to add my personnal touch by finger printing every club (one nice print somewhere...)

[Hacker]

I had pretty high expectations after seeing the pics from Gapwedge but I had no idea that they would turn out THIS good!!

[Hacker]

Just a couple of notes on what I did.

First off, to strip them I used a product called Hero - $6.80 at Canadian tire - basically a generic CLR. The oil can finish was off with in about 30 seconds.

I didn't do a submerge with the bluing formula, I wiped it on as per the instructions on the bottle. I used the same bluing chemical as Gapwedge.

Total costs....

Bluing formula - $5
Hero/CLR - $7
0000 steel wool - $4

Took me less than 75 minutes from the time I walked in the door from CT until I was taking pics of the final product

[Hacker]

Only question that I have is, do you finish these with anything? Sealing formula? Coat of oil? Anything?

Thanks to all for the great idea, and the DIY instructions

[Gapwedge]

Only question that I have is, do you finish these with anything? Sealing formula? Coat of oil? Anything?

Thanks to all for the great idea, and the DIY instructions

No problems - glad we could help. Pics look great.

There's no need to put anything on them - just keep they dry. I polish mine every so often (with 0000 steel wool) to bring back the sheen, but that's all. I re-blue mine at the end of each season - just wash and re-blue. No need to strip the old blueing agent.
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Chevrolet triax

[bobblehead]

When you strip off the finish using coke or a stripping product, does the paintfill get removed?

[Gapwedge]

When you strip off the finish using coke or a stripping product, does the paintfill get removed?

Paintfill was unaffected on the Vokey wedges and the Scottie putters. I can't speak to other clubs.
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Honda Cr125M

[Big Johnny69]

Would this work on TM Black TP wedges?

[Hacker]

When you strip off the finish using coke or a stripping product, does the paintfill get removed?

Paintfill was NOT affected in anyway in my case

[bobblehead]

Has anyone tried using CLR instead of coke to strip the finish? If so, any issues. Thanks.