Author Topic: Royal blued CZ  (Read 27151 times)

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Offline coolbox

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #30 on: April 11, 2014, 03:02:58 PM »
This is very beautiful. 'Polished' has a new definition now. Waiting to see the final product.
Life is too short to waste on a bad trigger pull

Offline CZU

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #31 on: April 13, 2014, 10:05:44 AM »
1985 hi-polished blue



Offline ThompsonCustom

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #32 on: April 13, 2014, 04:48:13 PM »
Got any more pics? She's a beauty.
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Offline CZU

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #33 on: April 13, 2014, 05:31:49 PM »
I will try to take some more tomorrow.

Offline Radom

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #34 on: April 14, 2014, 10:10:09 PM »
To my knowledge, CZ-UB has never produced a deep, high-gloss blued finish of the type seen on pre-war S&W revolvers or commercial Colts.  I have never seen any of their pre-war export CZ-24s in mint condition, but my understanding is that these were about as close as it gets. 

In English translation, all of the CZ-UB literature refers to the CZ-75 Type A finishes as either "gloss blued" or "matte blued."  The "gloss blue" specimens I have seen (all heavily used) don't look nearly as good as the photo CZU posted above.  That said, you may notice that CZU's pistol does not have the depth and accents associated with pre-war hot bluing or color case-hardening techniques.   (To be fair, that may be a lighting problem; I have found that photographing firearms is not easy.) 

I have seen pictures of a few short-rail specimens with beautiful blued finishes, but I suspect these were done by Frankonia or some other third party. 

The best OOB finishes I have ever seen came from Frankonia and Sphinx/ITM.  Frankonia finishes are mostly "refinishes" in the sense that they bought pistols from CZ-UB in various states of completion and "re-worked" them for sale.  To clarify, some of these pistols were essentially just routed through West Germany to "legalize" them, while others were bought before finishing and heavily modified by Frankonia or its subcontractors before bringing them to market.  I have seen pictures of some very nice Frankonia blued finishes.  To my knowledge, Sphinx/ITM essentially bought some Tanfoglio components and built what we would now call semi-custom pistols on that platform.  (I can't recall the model, but Sphinx did have a relatively "cheap" offering that may have been just a dressed-up Tanfoglio as well.)  Their finishes are all outstanding, but I have never seen one with a uniform, deep, high-gloss blued finish.  They tend to be two-toned, as do many Frankonia models.   That said, I wouldn't be surprised if an overseas member posted a pic of a Frankonia or Sphinx pistol that fit the bill.  These were not mass-produced handguns as we would understand that term.

That said, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the U.S. that could produce the effect you desire by refinishing.
The artist formerly known as FEG...

Offline ThompsonCustom

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #35 on: May 04, 2014, 03:52:07 PM »
Just a update, finally got around to working on the frame. Now just the safety, slide release, hammer and any other little parts I can think of are left.

Here's some pics of the frame.









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Offline jameslovesjammie

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #36 on: May 04, 2014, 04:39:34 PM »
I'm sorry.  I just had to pick my jaw up off the ground.

That is absolutely AMAZING!  I'm assuming that's hot blued?

Offline ThompsonCustom

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #37 on: May 04, 2014, 04:51:12 PM »
The pictures above are just the bare polished metal. Gonna wait to hot blue everything at once, also gonna start with the smaller pieces to see what the best amount of time in the hot blue bath is.
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Offline BEE

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #38 on: May 04, 2014, 06:51:56 PM »
The bare polished metal looks amazing already. Can't wait to see the end result.

Offline Bodene

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #39 on: May 05, 2014, 01:18:57 AM »
If anybody is interested Damascus Gun Shop has the glossy blue 75b in stock but it's not a good picture and I can't tell how shiny it is.  http://www.damascusgunshop.com/shop/pistols/cz-75/cz-75-b-9mm-glossy-blue-p294.html - Bodene

Offline coolbox

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #40 on: May 05, 2014, 02:36:10 AM »
This is beautiful work. Amazing.
Life is too short to waste on a bad trigger pull

Offline ThompsonCustom

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #41 on: May 07, 2014, 04:08:01 PM »
Thanks everyone glad you guys like it. Did a little more today polished up most of the little parts: hammer, slide stop, safety, mag release, extractor. Pretty much everything on the outside. I did forget to do the right side of the slide stop and safety so I'll have to do that before bluing but I'm hoping to get to that this weekend if I have the time.

Here are a couple more glamor shoots with the barrel, slide stop and safety in.







Sure does look like chrome kind of a shame to blue it if it doesn't turn out. Fingers crossed!!!
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Offline larryflew

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #42 on: May 07, 2014, 04:15:57 PM »
not to hijack but notice the Angus thread that they just got glossy blue 75b's in.
When did it change from "We the people" to "screw the people"?

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Offline Bodene

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #43 on: May 07, 2014, 06:03:52 PM »
Looking really nice so far ThompsonCustom hope it turns out the way you want. - Bodene

Offline ranfunck

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Re: Royal blued CZ
« Reply #44 on: May 07, 2014, 10:08:25 PM »
Held a cz glossy blue to day at the lgs, was not impressed. On the other hand I think Thomson Custom has the right idea cant wait to see how it turns out.