Refinishing safety

Because I recently had a good scare I thought I might bring the topic to the attn of the forum. If you are refinishing or touching up a gun with Birchwood cold blue or aluma-black wear your ppe. Gloves, goggles, perhaps even a respirator. There's some really bad chemicals in there that can be absorbed thru your skin.

Long story short im just burning off the selenium garlic breath (selenic acid) and the damage is done after refurbishing a 1975 crosman with no gloves on. Theres flouroboric acid and cadmium and nickle sulfate in there, all carcinogenic and in the case of flouroboric acid it can be deadly. I thought I accidentally fatally poisoned myself. Read the Msds and wear your ppe.. Just because it's over the counter and the warning is tiny, doesn't mean it's just to cover their butts.
 
Last edited:
When i used aluma black on the action, which I haven't taken a picture of because I want to break this rifle (it's not mine to break) is when I got over exposed.

This rifle is a 1974/75 variant and was just as beat and rusty as you would imagine it would be from sitting untouched in a garage near the ocean since 1980. I stripped and re ground the barrel and blued it and the air tube, action got glass blasted and aluma black.

23312f7a-0ba7-4992-9fff-b9bfb7e1ed91.jpg


b315a995-70e9-4719-9d45-cc1c4de6f57c.jpg