OK, you didn’t degrease/de-oil well enough.
First, the 0000 steel wool you used? Did you de-oil that? Because unless it is the type of steel wool you obtain through woodworking outlets, the steel wool probably had some oil in it as well.
To de-oil steel wool, you dunk it in acetone. Or you could buy some 0000 non-oiled steel wool through an outfit like woodworker.com.
OK, next, you need to clean the gun parts. Acetone is the first step in de-greasing. Brownell’s sells a degreaser called “Dicro-Clean 909,” which is used in hot water (just below the boiling point) to dunk gun parts into for 10 minutes to finish stripping any oils off the gun.
But let’s back up a bit: How is the polish on the piece? Blue results are all predicated upon a good polishing job. You need to polish the surface to 320 to 400 grit - no finer, no coarser. If the polish job is uneven, then so will the blueing job.
Lastly, since you lack the facility for hot caustic blueing, might I recommend rust blueing? It will take some patience on your part, but the results can be VERY good, and slow rust blueing is what is still used today on the very finest firearms. If you’re curious, I can explain the process, or I could give you a “fast rust blueing” process, both of which you can easily accomplish at home, without lots of equipment.
Thanks!
In fact it may be a question of me just re-doing it a few times. The guy at the gun show where I bought it said when he had a shop he would do 3 or 4 apps with it before he got the best results.
Like I said, I’m just trying it because I like to try new things and be able to do a halfway decent job. Or at least not do a half-azzd job!
Rust bluing? People still do that? I thought that went away 40 years ago.