browning solution

[frenchman]

i guy's is been a while
i tried with the search engine but not much help
i am trying this stuff , Tru-Brown by Wakon Bay
it's not going the way i want, i have degrease, wash and boiled finally was able to have some brown to lift from the parts after bagging it and placing a jar of water with it . But when a give it a rub with the steel wool it comes off. Soooo what am i doing wrong. I found it easier with plum brown from Birchwood Casey. The only thing that comes out as color is a very blueish tint and one of the parts turns black.
thanks

[snapper]

I have used this product for years and it always has worked.

I take the metal parts to 400 grit.  The finer the polish, the longer it takes to get the acid to get a good bite on the metal.

Depending on your humidity, it takes me 10 or more cycles.

hope this helps

fleener

[frenchman]

thanks snapper

[frogwalking]

Everyone seems to use something different.  I have been using Pilkington's Classic American Rust Blue for at least 10 years.  If you leave off the last step, boiling, it leaves a beautiful, authentic brown.  Brownell's sells it.  I have to clean the metal well, with denatured alcohol, handle it with rubber gloves, and it works much better with warm temperatures and fairly high humidity.   I think the latter helps with any of the cold rust browns and blues.  However, in low humidity conditions, with a good polish job,  one can achieve an almost translucent high gloss brown or blue, but it takes lots of patience.   I consider LMF to be a little more touchy in application that Pilkington's.  I just don't like Plumb Brown.  I am a hobby builder, and there are many professionals in this forum.  Consider the source when weighing advice.

Frog

[frenchman]

thanks frog, will do.
But you did hit it on the nose it's called patience. Something that a novice has to learn.
thanks again

[doug]

    I brown mostly damascus barrels and use a home made solution with mercuric chloride, a small amount of nitric acid, a small amount of ferric chloride, a touch of alcohol and about 90% of the volume is water.  That solution is very similar to what Oscar Gaddy described in the Double Gun Journal, some years ago and is also basically the same as several solutions found in Angier's book on browning solutions.
    Something i found very important was carding with wet steel wool; I use very fine steel wool and use lots of water.  Dry steel wool is far too aggressive for carding.  I don't have and don't use a damp box but I do spray with water every couple of hours, from a Windex spray bottle.

cheers Doug

[L. Akers]

What Snapper said.  You don't get instant color with slow-rust products.  Degrease your barrel, apply solution and WAIT for it to rust. When rusted, card ALL the rust off and apply more solution.  Keep repeating this process and you will get brown.  I use a diluted solution for a finer grained finish and it takes me 2-3 weeks using a rust box to get the color I want.

[frenchman]

thank you Doug and L.Akers will be repeating the process slowly and will see the results in a few weeks great.
frenchman