Thinking About Refinishing A Barrel

[longrifle]

I picked up a modern made ML that is prob. 30-35 yrs old. It is in good working order with  good bore, but whoever had the gun in the past didn't do a very good job of keeping the outside very clean. You can see the barrel was originally blue but it has a good many rust spots on it they are kind of crusty in a few places. I am thinking about browning the barrel, my question is should I strip the whole barrel down to bright metal and rebrown it ?  Or just get the surface rust off and rebrown it ? What is the best way to remove the scattered finish and rust spots a good rust and blue remover ? I have heard some talk about using Evapo-Rust to remove the scatterd areas of original finish and rust spots to take it down to bare metal or should I just give it a good old fashioned rub down witth a fine grit sand paper or emory cloth. Opinion's and thoughts needed. Thank's

[keweenaw]

The only good way to do this is to clean the entire thing down to bare metal.  All of the browning solutions need bare metal to start on and any oil will prevent their action.   If any finish is left on the surface - old blueing etc. you'll get a very mottled effect.   I've always found it easier to just start with my abrasive cloth and take off the whole surface rather than messing with blueing removers or rust strippers.  The problem with leaving any rust on the surface, or even rust in pits, is that it's very hard to get oil residues out of the rust and the pits under the rust will continue to rust and pit deeper if they aren't removed. 

Tom

[rich pierce]

Some folks work hard to get the look you already have, lol.

[billd]

I browned a TC barrel right over the original blue with LMF solution, worked well.  It was not rusty or pitted. I scrubbed it with a degreaser and scotchbrite but not enough to take the original blue off.

Bill

[FRJ]

I wanted my GPR to have a brown finish. Following advice I recieved here on this site I stripped the blue off with viniger, washed and steelwooled all the pieces including the barrel and used Laurel Mountain barrel brown and degreaser that I got from Track of the Wolf. I followed directions exactly and got a very nice brown finish for the whole rifle. I'm now building a Hawken and plan on using the same brown finish on that. Frank

[keweenaw]

The very aggressive browning agents like LMF have enough acid in them to basically remove the old blueing if you can get the oil out of it but they also produce a much more textured surface than I find attractive.   One man's brown is another man's rusty gun.

Tom

[54Bucks]

 I agree that the only way to get a uniform finish regardless of what you use, is to take it down to bare metal. After browning I like the color when a little finish (linseed oil, ect.) is very lightly applied over the dry unoiled browned barrel. Like wood it brings up the depth  and deepens the color. Granted there will always be a little discoloration from use around the touch hole.

[Michigan Flinter]

Put on clean gloves bead blast the barrel  blow off the dust and apply your browning .I've done this to a couple of barrels and they come out with a nice finish.Make sure you plug the bore and touch hole.