My first go at browing and blueing

[Cory Joe Stewart]

this is my first attempt at browning.  Now that I think about it I did blue the trigger on my first rifle.  Anyway this the lock for my dad's Chamber's smooth rifle kit.  For the browning I followed the instructions with the product from Laurel Mountain Forge.  I created a sweat box out of a large stew pot I use to boil horns in.  For the barrel I made a makeshift one out of plastic tarp with the stew pot at the bottom.  For the blueing I followed the instructions from the tutorial section of the forum, using a torch and quenching in Linseed Oil. 

Browning can be a scary process to watch. Espcially on the barrel



Coryjoe

[billd]

Keep a close eye on it for the next few days in case it doesn't want to stop rusting.

Bill

[eddillon]

I'd take it apart and scrub with a baking soda water paste rinse well with hot water and apply a coat of clear stock finish.  Before applying the finish, check to see if the scrubbing removed any brown down to the bare metal.  If so brown some more.  Could you post the link to the bluing tutorial, please?

[davebozell]

Did you brown the lock while it was assembled?  I was considering taking mine apart to brown only the "exterior" components.  I've also seen comments about "carding" after browning.  Can someone explain that one for me?  Thanks.

[Jim Kibler]

Yes, if you are going to brown, take the lock apart first.

[Larry Luck]

Dave,

Here's a link to a thread on rust blueing that addresses the carding process. 

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=17153.0

Browning is a similar process (omitting the boiling step).  The carding (one poster uses a wire wheel - others use wire brushes, abrasive nylon pads, etc.) removes the looser surface layer and results in a finer, less pitted  texture to the finish.

Larry Luck

[Long Ears]

Carding is simply rubbing the loose rust off between coats of rusting agent. Now guys use different media to do this. Anything from brown paper bag, old Levi's, steel wool (degreased), to sand paper. I use the stainless steel hair fine bristle wheel from Brownells. I think Acer is where I stole that idea from. And gosh yes you need to take the lock apart.  Only brown the lock plate, cock, Frizzen and the heads and ends of screws. Remember it it RUST! It can and will ruin threads and all of the polishing you did on the internals of the lock and lock plate will need to be re polished and well oiled. IMHO, Bob

[whetrock]

When carding, you want to do it often. If you wait too long between efforts, then the rust can build up too thickly. If you do it often, then you can do it with a fine abrasive (like fine sandpaper or steel wool). If you wait too long, then you end up (unfortunately) having to scrape it off with courser material (or even a steel brush), and that can leave scratches.

Scratches can be polished out, but if you end up with them, it usually requires that you polish the entire part. It usually doesn't work to just polish out a section (like a section of a plate) and then try to refinish that section. It ends up splotchy. The part doesn't have to go all the way back down to bare metal, necessarily, but the amount of residue finish does need to be fairly consistent over the surface before you start browning again.

Did anyone mention that you can use varnish to protect threads before you brown? This is really helpful if you are using any sort of immersion. Just carefully paint the threads, let it dry completely, then gently sand off any varnish that ran onto areas that need browning. You can cut the varnish out of the threads easily with a tap after everything is finished.

Also, if you want an aged look, leaving it a little uneven is fine. Esp on early rifles, it doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth and even like a chocolate bar. There is good evidence to indicate that a lot of early rifles were either left in the white or were blued by the smith. The “browning” that we see on some of them is just natural rust that accumulated over time. So the amount of that rusty finish we add on to a modern reproduction will either represent a period piece as it was being used by a pioneer, with a light, uneven browning that accumulates during use. (Best if you are into reenactment.) Or it will represent a piece that was badly abused and or left in an attic for 100 years and accumulated a lot of rust. (Can look cool on a wall-hanger, provided the stock is also equally aged.)

[whetrock]

I should have mentioned that later period pieces often did have an intentional, even brown finish. My comments above were based on your early round-faced English lock. If you were building a Hawken, etc, then the even, smooth brown would be right on.

[JDK]

I was under the impression that Hawkens were believed to have the locks and hardware casehardened and the barrels blued originally.  Is that wrong?  Enjoy, J.D.

[whetrock]

I think it's a mix. But I'm going to bow out at this point, and refer you to some experts. There's a discussion about finish on Hawken's on this forum.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=7914.0

[JTR]

There is good evidence to indicate that a lot of early rifles were either left in the white or were blued by the smith. The “browning” that we see on some of them is just natural rust that accumulated over time.

Interesting. Would you please point me in the direction of this evidence?
Unless of course you're referring to military rifles.

Thanks, John

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Thanks everyone,

The lock was taken apart before browning and was left apart a couple of days after.  This photo was taken a day or so after reasembled.  It did try to keep rusting I buffed it down real good and rinsed it with oil the way Hershel House does in his video.

The way I did it was I took the lock apart and filled all the holes with wax and cover the inside of the plate with wax.  Any rusting that started on the inside was sanded off.

I carded it with a course cloth that came from a pair of old kahki pants.  I also used one of the green scrub pads on some parts. 

I agree with the idea that browning the lock is not historically accurate.  What little I have research suggests this.  My longrifle was left white.  This was a project for my dad and he likes the look of the browned lock.  So thats what I did.

Coryjoe

[whetrock]

John, thanks for the question. I don’t have time right now to pull together many quotations or pull together photos from books and articles I've collected, but I will scan a few quotes from Peter Alexander's book, The Gunsmith of Grenville County. I hope that will help provide an answer to your question. Mr. Alexander provides a well written, concise description. From (2002:314):



And also from the same page (Alexander 2002:314):



Then later a following page (Alexander 2002: 315):



For those interested, in that same chapter P. Alexander provides a good description of the charcoal-bluing process as it was used in the 18th c, and on page 316 opens a discussion about artificial aging of barrels. In chapter 37, he continues that discussion in regard to finishing stocks, and comments on aging in relation to what a modern smith hopes to represent in his work.

I hope my comments earlier didn’t sound like I was criticizing aging. I certainly didn’t mean to. I like the aged look, myself. My goal with this post (and others I’ve made) is just to help all of us who are reading to think through various techniques. I think this forum is just the coolest resource imaginable. I think it helps all of us move our art forward in leaps and bounds.

[JTR]

Okay, thanks for posting that. I thought maybe you had some hard evidence, as opposed to opinion.

I don't doubt that some might have been left bright, but I have a hard time believing that the original owners of these rifles were running around in the hills, hunting or whatever, with a long shinny octagon barrel reflecting sunlight for miles around.
 
Plus the finish on most barrels are pretty smooth and even. And true, a number of barrels don't have any color on the bottom flats of the barrel, but almost no rifles/fowlers have any finish inside the barrel channel either, so the lack of finish on the barrel's underside wouldn't seem to me as unusual or unexpected. And for the barrels that are browned all the way around, the finish is generally very consistant top side to under side, and if the barrel has been mounted in a gun all these years, I can't imagine unintentional rusting happening in such a smooth and consistant way.

But then, this is just my opinion!   

John

[whetrock]

Yeah, I’m sorry if my earlier comment was misleading. I had not meant to imply that "left in the white" was common, but simply that “brown” seems to have not been common. And “evidence" is always difficult to define when we are talking about historical research and experimental archeology.

There’s yet another place where my comment was too broad. Coryjoe's original post was about browning a lock. The Anderson article is more specifically about barrels.

So, to have another go at it…
In the opinion of several recognized experts, there is reason to think that browning was not a common shop-produced finish used on barrels in pre-Revolutionary America.

The Anderson article notes that many of the antique rifles examined by the shop in Colonial Williamsburg did indeed have brown barrels when they were brought in for examination. But Anderson’s article calls into question whether or not the brown surfaces represented a surface finish produced by the smiths who first built the guns. The article argues that charcoal bluing was the more common technique, and in their opinion, browning did not become common until late in the 18th c. (The implication then seems to be that the brown surface we see on many early firearms may simply be the product of after-production, natural rusting, either on top of charcoal bluing, or on a barrel originally left in the white.)

Here’s the full ref for the Anderson article if anyone wants it:
James Anderson. 1993. Charcoal Bluing of Rifle Barrels. in Journal of Historical Armsmaking Technology, vol V, 53-63