Parkerizing as an alternative barrel finish

[stan57]

I see a lot of very dark barrel and lock finishes on older longrifles, darkest on the oldest surviving examples. I am set up to parkerize modern firearm barrels and parts, and I think I can replicate these old finishes for a day-to-day shooter (I totally understand it's verboten to mention these things for historically correct building - please no flames). The manganese phosphate will take on anywhere from a dark o.d. green to a very dark black finish depending on the oil or dye treatment applied after you pull it out of the solution. Zinc phosphate is too gray, I think. It is a durable finish for gun barrels, proven on the battlefield. Any thought on this subject? Any responses greatly appreciated.

[HSmithTX]

Personally, I wouldn't.  My thought is this, it's really not any harder or more expensive to do the correct finish.  When I started with black powder I really didn't care about HC and PC, but the more I learn about the longrifle the more I want correct.  In this case I like rust blue, the total outlay is $10 for the solution, a couple bucks for steel wool and some of my time to rust and boil and card.  The rust blue won't hold as much oil as parkerizing will but it's very durable and tough, I think it's a bit tougher overall and I know it's a lot tougher when it comes to  marring of the finish.  If you don't want to boil and card you can leave the finish brown, I don't like the look of brown but some guys really do. 

[T*O*F]

Zinc phosphate is too gray,

If it were a lighter gray, aka "French Gray", it would be appropriate for certain guns.  I am about to do a French Gray on the barrel of one of my long range rifles.

[mony]

One way to find out. Give it a try, maybe rub back, maybe French gray. Post pics of successes and failures and you’ll get opinions.
Dave

[Goo]

I think its great if you are building modern inlines.   But the whole point is to uphold and preserve the longrifle tradition to make things the way they were done at the time.  As my journeyman master taught me "you a can turn $1000.00 worth parts into a $300 gun"