browning a stainless steel barrel

[yip]

  whats the thoughts on browning a stainless steel barrel? a friend is trying to brown one and has a little trouble with even browning, is it wise to brown a s/s barrel.

[Howard]

Depends on what series of stainless you are trying to brown. 316 series would be  hard as it is non corrosive.  Good luck.  It can be anodized if I remember right but I doubt if you would enjoy the color.

[Ky-Flinter]

I thought that was the point of "stainless" steel, that it doesn't easily rust?  I have a big stainless knife that I would love to "age".  Looking forward to hearing some ideas on rusting stainless steel.

-Ron

[Joe Stein]

My father, who was a chemist, once told me that it was possible to blacken the surface of stainless steel by mixing a few drops of iodine (yes the stuff you get at the drugstore should work fine, and he said that you only need a few drops) in muriatic acid, then suspending the stainless steel item above the liquid.  The fumes should blacken the steel over time.  I never tried it, and Dad is gone now, so I can't get any more information.  I don't recall him saying how the different grades of stainless react to this treatment, or how deep the color goes.  You could try it with a piece of the same grade stainless you have by buying a small piece from some place like Online Metals, provided you know what grade stainless you have.

[Goo]

If stainless steel has contact with carbon steel it will rust.    I would imagine one could wrap the barrel with steel wool to start the oxidation process.

[Hungry Horse]

Some stainless will brown with a good browning solution. I saw a stainless mounted Tryon browned years ago, and it came out real good. The brown solutions back then that worked well all had mercury in them. I don't think any of the modern solutions today have mercury as an ingredient.
 My question is where did he get a stainless muzzleloader barrel?

  Hungry Horse

[bama]

Brownells has a solution for darkening stainless barrels. Not trying to be a bad guy here but this should not really be part of this forum.

[Dennis Glazener]

Since stainless is not normally used on traditional long Rifles or accrouments I am going to lock this thread but will leave the suggested ways to rust it.
Dennis