Prior to browning??

[Old Ford2]

Has anyone tried "light" sand blasting metal parts prior to browning?
I thought it would give an aged look, and yet a very clean surface for the browning solution.
Has anyone tried this with any sucess?
Best regards.
Old Ford

[Randall Steffy]

As a blasting media, I would suggest glass beads. I have used them with good results but based on my sandblasting experience outside gunmaking, your finish with sand will be very "sharp". The glass beading evens out the surface, slightly softening it and achieves the cleanliness you want for browning. Try a sample of both, then you decide.

[Roger B]

My cousin, "The Tulsa Stripper", runs a sand blasting business and has done barrels for me.  It works very well.  He uses glass beads.
Roger B.

[Klatch]

I have had really good results using the finest sand I could find.  This method was taught to me by Terry Ott from Biggs, CA.  Very knowledgable guy.

[rsells]

I have both sand blasted and bead blasted metal parts before browning them with good resuts.  I like the bead blasting best.  It gives it a softer finish and allowed me to still get an even color brown.  When someone wants a brown finish on the metal parts today, I clean the metal up to a finish using 220 paper, and use Davis Brown or Homer Dangler's cold browning solution to get the finish I want.  I get an even brown without doing the sand or bead blasting using the process I use now to get a brown finish.
                                                                                        Roger Sells

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

It would probably give an excellent surface for browning, just like the finish on locks. They always brown very well, and fast.

[Hungry Horse]

 This is very interesting. I have been working with a friend that is in the process of trying to remove the rough sandblasted browning job on a beautiful rifle he just bought, that was built sometime in the eighties ( this finish was all the rage back then). This gun is a piece of art, except for the rough finish, on the lock, and barrel.
 I would say glass beads would keep the parts from looking like they had spent a wet winter under ground after browning. These finishes give the barrel a lot of texture to hold oil, but hold moisture as well, so if you miss an oiling out in the field you're going to get rust thats hard to remove without removing the texture.
 I did a bunch of barrels like this years ago. I also learned the technique from old Bull Frog (Terry Ott) as well.

                    Hungry Horse

[Klatch]

Hungry Horse,
How are you prepping to brown now and what is your favorite cold brown. Do you know if old Bull Frog is still with us?  Haven't been to rendezvous for awhile.

[Hungry Horse]

 A friend who has a metal fabrication shop built his first scratch built longrifle with the help of myself, and a rendezvous friend called Tall Pine. The gun came out fantastic, and the metal finish was superb. I knew it wasn't the browning solution I had recommended, so I asked him what he used. It is a metal blackening solution that he uses in the shop, that he simply used like browning solution instead of the way the label suggested.
 I have not heard from, or of Terry for years. I have a lot of handmade stuff he made back in the day. I assume he has either changed interests, or gone under. All my contact information doesn't work anymore. Terry, and Mary, were the first traders to come to our Rendezvous ( Scotts Creek Rendezvous) way back when.

                       Hungry Horse

[PPatch]

I use Laurel Mountain Forge's browning solution which always gives a good result. I'm browning today in fact. With the LMF I take the metal to true 220 grit (I have tried it at 400 and it looks about the same when done IMO). The first couple of coats are a bit splotchy but after the third a nice even brown is building. Card in between coats. You don't have to sweat a supper degreasing with the LMF, it will go right through fingerprints etc (I have tested it). I do give the metal a wiping with acetone before applying.

dave

[Dphariss]

Has anyone tried "light" sand blasting metal parts prior to browning?
I thought it would give an aged look, and yet a very clean surface for the browning solution.
Has anyone tried this with any sucess?
Best regards.
Old Ford

Bead blasting works and will rust faster but puts the wrong finish on for appearance.
I would not sand blast but BEAD blast. Plug the muzzle and breech on barrels.

Dan

[vulture]

I've used both sand and glass beads and the glass beads is the only way  to go, it gives you a nice clean prepped finish to the metal that takes the browning acid great, the sand on the other hand made for a very rough finish when all was said and done.  I'm in the process of putting together a GPR flint kit and when I get ready to brown the metal I will take it over to a local diesel shop that a friend of mine works at and use their bead blaster cabinet.  Bead blasting, if you can do it, will clean the metal better than any cleaning method I have seen, once it's blasted I wrap the parts in clean paper towels while still in the cabinet, then never touch them with my  bare hands again.  Some folks use rubber gloves but I prefer clean cotton knit gloves.  The browning solution I've used in the past and will use on this one, if it still works, is an acid solution made up for Green River Rifle Works in Roosevelt, Utah, but a chemist that had a business in Roosevelt serving the oil industry, it is some of the best browning I have ever seen when the metal is perfectly clean.