Woodbury steel finish

[Pukka Bundook]

Good trough but not maybe so good for boiling something in, TC.
V good for givin old stuff a caustic soda bath.

[Hungry Horse]

 You only have to boil it if you have no patients. It just takes longer in with warm water and bleach. I find it a little more controllable than the instant gratification method.

  Hungry Horse

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I have no desire to re-create a rusted out barrel, or one that looks like the owner didn't look after it for about thirty years, but I do use a trough to boil barrels for rust bluing.  Mine was made by a fabricator here in town.  It's stainless steel with an aluminum lib, ans sheet steel side panels to hold the heat.  Mine is 54" long and five inches square.  It rests on two bricks on my shop table, and the propane supply comes from a torch head into a square pipe with holes over it's length.  Does a nice job, but cost a few bucks for sure.






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[sqrldog]

Nice set up for rust buing Taylor. Great looking rust blue on the barrel assembly. Tim

[45-110]

Taylor
i am liking the tang sight and sculptured mount......classy!
kw

[KC]

I find it a little more controllable than the instant gratification method.

HA! Now there's some words of wisdom that probably apply to many situations.
K.C.

[t.caster]

I like Taylor's method of bluing!
No Pukka, mine is definitely not for boiling.

[Ed Wenger]

Justin..., to answer your question, yes, there is something you can wipe on for a similar result.  Use LMF browning solution and let it go way past the browning stage and let it rust.  Will most likely take a couple / few days, and works especially well in a heat box.  Do a search here, there’s plenty of info on this method...


           Ed

[Clear Spring Armory]

Is there something that would do a similar finish by wiping on the metal, rather than immersing it? I don't have the space or equipment to set up a boiling trough for a long barrel here.

You can get a patina that's similar using a heat gun. It won't have the deep pitting, but it will look like an old single shot shotgun that's had all the bluing rubbed off through the years. You will have to play with it, but basically it goes like this: Cold blue part, card, cold blue again (no heat). Heat, apply cold brown. Let sit until it dries and you see the rust color, card. Heat and apply toilet bowl cleaner that contains bleach, cleaner should sizzle if you got the metal hot enough. Card with steel wool loaded with the toilet bowl cleaner. Degrease part. Heat part, apply cold blue (should sizzle), card, and then repeat the steps. When you get nearly the color you want you can use the blueing to create dark areas around the pan and in recesses where fouling usual does damage. Practise on scrap, but realize different steel has different reactions. I'll bet you can use straight bleach instead of TB cleaner that contains bleach, but I would still card back with TB cleaner. Experiment, its fun. Its also faster than most finishes. You can get all parts done in an evening, but you'll be busy 😀. Goes without saying, it's toxic, do it outside with a respirator.

[Goo]

Vinegar will Pitts galore your steel in a hurry as well

[Justin Urbantas]

I have no desire to re-create a rusted out barrel, or one that looks like the owner didn't look after it for about thirty years, but I do use a trough to boil barrels for rust bluing.  Mine was made by a fabricator here in town.  It's stainless steel with an aluminum lib, ans sheet steel side panels to hold the heat.  Mine is 54" long and five inches square.  It rests on two bricks on my shop table, and the propane supply comes from a torch head into a square pipe with holes over it's length.  Does a nice job, but cost a few bucks for sure.






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That's a really nice set-up Taylor. Would be very handy.  Thanks for all the help, guys. I will try some of the suggestions

[Craig Wilcox]

Companies like Brownell's sell vinyl plugs to seal the barrel.  They come in various sizes, and are not very expensive.

I've used them when doing hot bluing.  I remember I had to get a dozen to plug the cylinder on a nice S&W.

[stubshaft]

I do the same thing as Ed and coat the varrel with LMF Browning and over rust it.  I cut is back with 0000 steel wool to the desired roughness.  If you can immerse it in boiling water it will darken to a black/gray patina.

[KentSmith]

I used to boil in chlorox and scrub it back.  Now I do as Ed suggested but simply applying my ferric nitrate stock stain to the clean barrel and let it go way past brown and get really nasty rusty.  I don't card off the rust but keep applying the nitrate twice a day - use a sweat box if it is not humid (no problem in the summer here).  Then I take the scotch brite to it and rub it down to what I want.  I might then boil it to get the dark gray/black on some areas as Ed mentioned and wipe it down with ammonia when done to neutralize.

A lot of work that I just don't do that much anymore.  My love affair with Woodbury guns has passed.  I still like them and admire and enjoy the House Brothers  but the chlorox boil and engraving with broken files, well I going to get a few more hours sleep.  Wake me later.

[Gaeckle]

Is there something that would do a similar finish by wiping on the metal, rather than immersing it? I don't have the space or equipment to set up a boiling trough for a long barrel here.

Yes, wipe the barrel down with cold blue, hang it by the tang (muzzle pointing down) and then use a spay bottle with bleach in it to spritz bleach on the barrel. You will get a random pattern. If you don't like what you see, do it again. I do this hanging it down off a fence. In the summer, humidity really does a great job. If there are colder non humid days, hang it in the shower and when everyone takes a shower the heat and moisture will do the same thing.

You can also use straight bleach, apply it cold and use a torch to boil it off the metal barrel, it will give a different affect.

I used blueing and bleach on this gun. Didn't like what I saw, steel wooled it off and then used bleach and a torch on the barrel. The lock has a combo of blue and bleach. The guard, trigger and screws where soaked in a 50-50 mix of bleach and water for a day or so, then cleaned and oiled. The barrel showed a good pitting that for the most part looked like an old rusty barrel, which is what I wanted. I used old original barrels as a barometer to judge the outcome.

[hermdog]

I can't imagine boiling chlorine water. I read that guys are afraid to melt lead and pour balls because they are afraid of the lead vapors. Lead won't vaporize at melting temperature but chlorine is nasty stuff without being boiled. Chlorine is a very dangerous chemical at anything other than very low concentrations. Inhaling chlorine forms hydrochloric acid in your lungs and mucous membranes. Chlorine gas was used to make mustard gas in WW1. I spent over 35 years in the water and wastewater industry and we eliminated the use of chlorine any time we could.

[WadePatton]

Vinegar will Pitts galore your steel in a hurry as well

Might for you, but that's how I soak the rust off neglected tools and re-fresh worn files. Threre's a thread on it. The trick is re-oiling JUST as soon as you've got the loosened scale and crud cleaned off.  Otherwise the acid-cleaned surface will get a surface oxidation about as fast as it dries.

There's likely a better acid for this treatment, but not at 3 bucks a gallon.

Also I left the last batch of files (sawchain files) in the solution for nearly a week-long after bubbles stopped.  They cleaned up fine. Full submersion is key as well as drying/oiling after. I have no fear of pitting any steel with vinegar (or lye).

Just dropped a rusty hammer into the "vat". 

[Pukka Bundook]

You're dead on, Wade.