rust blueing

[hortonstn]

anyone got a clue when they started rust blueing muzzloaders instead of browning also is rust blueing as tough as other methods?
paul

[rich pierce]

Rust blueing is probably the toughest of the traditional finishing methods.  Not sure when it began.  Most of us are skeered or unequipped to do the charcoal bluing method that was prevalent in the 1700's.

[Roger B]

Are we talking tough as in hard to do, or tough as in a durable finish?  If you are interested in technique, see my post on "streaky rust blue" in this category.  It isn't hard to do, just labor intensive.  If you use Laurel Mountain Forge rust blue, use very little pressure when applying the solution & be sparing with the volume so it doesn't accumulate or run.  The directions say that, & they really, really, mean it  .  I thought I was doing it correctly, but wasn't quite gentle enough in applying the LMF.  99% looked great, but a couple of places got streaky.  Mark Lee's Express Blue is a hot rust blue like Birchwood Casey Plumb Brown & seems to do as well.  I made my trough for apply boiling water out of PVC pipe with end caps, & cut open a slot on the pipe with a band saw.  You can then immerse the barrel in water that you boiled on the kitchen stove or a camp stove in the shop.  It probably would be better to actively boil the parts for seven or so minutes, but that takes a metal trough that requires more cost and fabrication.  I'll be building one soon.
Roger B. 

[54ball]

A good rust blue is tough and beutiful.  When done correctly it makes striking, satiny and deep black.  In short the process is the same as browning except for the added step of boiling in water to turn the brown black.   
  St. Louis Hawkens were rust blued and fine doubles are rust blued to this day.  So we know the process goes back to the very early 1800s at least.  I suspect that process is far older, " think the black knight".
   Rust blue will patina to a brown over time so original brown guns may well have been blue.