m94 "wintuff" question

[jimaw2]

I just picked up a very clean "wintuff" m94 30-30. I like the look of the laminated stock and it shoots great. It had a scratch on the receiver that i was sure a little cold blue would take care of but it does not touch it. I'm not that familiar with 94 receivers. Are they made of a steel that will not take cold blue or are the "wintuff" models use a different type of steel? Thanks for the info!

 

[Goatwhiskers]

Post '64 receivers are made of something called "graphitic" steel which will not blue, altho some have come up with recipes that supposedly work. The action was plated with iron which will take hot and cold blues, but when the blueing wears off the plating is gone also, this also happens when someone repolishes the action. I have heard that the steel was changed in recent years, but no personal knowledge. Here endeth the lesson. Goatwhiskers the Elder

 

[Scorch]

Post-64 Winchester receivers are infamous for their not taking bluing, the metal alloy was designed exclusively for workability, and apparently it was cheaper in the long run than 4140 forgings. There are several options for "rebluing": black chrome plating (sometimes looks kinda purplish), black nickel plating (kinda silvery grey, not real dark black, but looks nice), iron plating followed by bluing (gets tedious finding someone who can do this), black oxide plating (more common, but goes on thick and is shiny), and GunKote (not as bad as it sounds, they have a color called "gun blue" that really does look like bluing).

 

[jimaw2]

thank you for the replies. the "scratches" are not bad enough to warrant a refinish job so i guess i will just learn to love them. on one of winchesters sites they said the 80's receivers were made of ordnance steel. is this the same thing as the earlier versions, a fancy word that means "cheap"?

 

[Hawg]

Ordnance steel isn't cheap steel. It's high quality steel that blues nicely. The plated receivers ended in 81.