Finish/Iron Mounted Gun

[StevenV]

the gun is not finished but as i move closer ,the thought of  how I finish the iron parts pops up more and more. The previous Iron mounted gun was rusted/ rubbed back and then some blueing. Kind of turned out a tiny bit pitted, rusted, see pics






. Probably leaning towards the same finish unless other ideas steer me another direction. The real question for this long winded question/topic is : WHAT about the patch box Does that get finished like the rest of the iron "furniture" Taking all comments , good bad and the ugly               StevenV

[Scota4570]

Looks good. 

I personally prefer a smoother finish.  I card before the rust gets that far.  In my cool dry climate I do not let it go more than 24 hours, usually I only go with about an 8-hour swab to card cycle. 

A purpose made carding brush from Brownells etc works well.  I spin the brush on an old drill press that I can run very slow.  I also use a bronze suede brush for a lot of carding. 

This is a rust browned patchbox.

[Chocktaw Brave]

I used plum brown for my steel parts because it was all I could get. And I noticed as you did there was a little bit of pitting in some of the parts. I did go over the thing afterwards with steel wool and it smoothed out a lot.
But it does make it look a whole lot older than it really is.

[elkhorne]

Steven V,
Have you thought about lightly browning the parts like Scot4570 stated, card back but not everything off and then a cold blue and carding back with something like Marion Scotch Brite. This gives you a nice moderately aged but cared for appearance especially if your wood is finished to an almost like new luster. What really looks right is aged metal with aged wood. Some bone black in recesses like Jim Kibler demonstrates on YouTube gives the wood a nice look. Just ideas so good luck. Whatever you do, please share some photos for all of us to see.