Browning a lock?

[Eric Krewson]

I have my gun sighted in, the next step will be filing off the excess sight material and browning the barrel and lock.

The lock is a deluxe Chambers with the typical orange peel metal surface. Should I file and sand this surface smooth before I brown the lock?

Spent the day at the range making smoke for the first time with this gun. I have to fine tune what it likes to shoot but a deer with in 50 yds is toast.

[jwh1947]

You need to disassemble the lock and file off the phosphatized finish.  Really go to full metal and  file the cock, too. Then you can age and brown your lock.  Don't apply any finish to the inside except apply a few drops of machine oil when done with your work.  Invest in a mainspring vise if you don't already have one. 

[Dphariss]

I would not file it unless its really rough.
I would use 150 or 180 grit wet or dry paper double stick taped on 1/4" plexiglas
Then go finer until the finish is right.
I would either have it case hardened in colors or case it around the tumbler hole with Kasenite and then polish and leave white. Or have it cased without color and leave it the way it comes out.
Or brown it if you like. I would harden it no matter the finish makes a much slicker lock.

Dan

[Black Hand]

File/Sand it smooth and allow it to age.  Browning a lock is a real pain in the a** and doesn't really look "right".....

[rich pierce]

One of the challenges in browning a lock is that the hardened frizzen will not "take" as well as the softer parts (cock, etc).  Or maybe it's the different alloys used for these parts on most locks.  But back in the day, not knowing what other finishes were used on originals, most of us browned locks and they came out fine.  Some folks simply etch the exterior parts briefly with acid (nitric or muriatic, swabbed on the outside parts only) and don't clean up the nubbly casting appearance before proceeding to browning the lock.  A polished lock gives a different appearance with browning and can look good.  Here's an example- from 1978, before I knew much about gun architecture or carving.  But the lock finish has held up well.  This one was polished to 400 grit and browned with Birchwood Casey's Plum Brown (hot method).

[bdixon]

I used Laurel mountain browning on a musket lock and it turned out really nice.  I roughed up the metal a bit with 180 sand paper to get a rougher finish and I love it.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I polished this Chambers Late Ketland to 600 and browned it in a damp box (five applications) with Neider brown, carding with rolled up canvas between coats.  I steel wooled it on the last carding.  The frizzen and its spring came out the same as the plate and cock, but that doesn't always happen, just as Rich points out.  This finish is very tough.  I also did the barrel and trigger plate at the same time.  The screws and trigger are case hardened and then burnished by a fairly soft wire wheel.

[Acer Saccharum]

I wonder if you glass beaded the friz first, would it brown easier?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

That would increase the surface area, which would make it easier for the solution to etch the frizzen.  Applying the solution thinly is key.  You don't want any drips or puddling of the liquid.  I use two cotton balls dipped in the solution, and then squeezed out.

[Eric Krewson]

I browned  the barrel yesterday and today, came out pretty good, a little streaky around the sights but OK.

I am sanding down my lock parts this evening for browning tomorrow.

Do you plug the screw holes with wooden pegs to keep the browning solution out of the threads?

[Ken G]

Eric,
I may be doing it wrong but I put the screws in the lock with the ends exposed so they will brown with the plate. 
Interested to hear how others do it.
Ken

[Canyonrun]

I have two questions first being the lock so finish lock in a kit are not case hardened? I’ve always built my own locks, which are case hardened hard to imagine a finish lock in a kit not being so. Second questions been shooting BP with a local club for only two years now but that can of black powder sitting in the open box to the right of that flint shooter looks very dangerous. 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I brown the plate stripped, as well as all the parts that go with it, separate.  I don't worry about solution in the threads, because I only dampen the plate, and there is no liquid running into the threads.