Cold blued and scratched....

[Birds Away]

I think I am going with Cerakote for my 82 and P64.  I live alone so baking them in the house is not an issue.

[Andyd]

To answer a previous question, cold blueing is nowhere near as stong of a finish as hot blueing.  Great 2nd best since hot blueing is expensive.

Cold blue is generally wearing pretty fast when compared to hot blue. Rust bluing is applied in sveral layers and each layer has to wear individually. While being labour intensive, it lends itself perfectly to the hobby gunsmith since there isn't much equipemt needed that cannot be found in the average home. A $40 bottle will last for several dozen handguns.

We had a refinishing thread on a CZ82 started late last year on RFC. Might make you interested in rust bluing...

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=528474

[LantanaTX]

Rust bluing is great but I decided to hot blue my Makarov.  This picture was taken the day I blued it and the rear sight has not been put back on.  I was going for restoration and the dark black color matches mint condition Mak's.  for bluing salts, I used Roebic 100% lye drain cleaner I got from lowes and HI Yield Nitrate of soda fertilizer I got from a nursery.  It is hard to photograph black but the finish is completely even and beautiful.  I did this last weekend...