Leman Finish?

[Dew]

About to finish up my Leman but I'm not sure how to finish the metal. I was just going to brown it but I was looking at some  pics of originals on the net and now I'm not so sure. My hardware is all iron except the patchbox. Anybody know what they did back then?

[Otter]

I'll be interested to see some of the replies, too, as I have a Leman project on my bench right now. I got the parts over 4 years ago, started the build in earnest then got busy with work and personal stuff. Just got back on to it today . . . finally. I have been intending to brown all the furniture (all iron) except the trigger guard (German silver). Mine is going to be a "working man's" Leman . . . a real plain jane. I may do a few embellishments, but my skill level on that needs some work, so we'll see what falls out of the tree.

[wmaser]

I have an original Leman in .36 cal. The octagon barrel is browned with a copper blade front sight. The percussion lock and double set trigger are browned. All other furniture, ie...muzzle cap, ram rod pipes, trigger guard, cap box and butt plate are brass. I might add, the barrel has a good bit of wriggle engraving on the top flat in addition to the signature.
One odd feature is that the single lock bolt is brass. Of course, that may have been replaced at some time in the past.

[Dew]

Thanks for the replies. I talked to a very knowledgeable person a couple of days ago and he thought that the barrels were rust blued and the other iron hardware was probably color cased so that's what I'm doing. The color case is pretty much a grey and black with some blue mixed in. At least that's what I ended up with if I did it right. Suppost to be close to how the Hawkens were done. I wasn't to sure what to think of it at first but I sat the lock in the mortise and it looks pretty cool. I did it with a torch and some casinite. Don Stith told me how to do it. I've heard that other originals were browned also so maybe some were done one way and some the other but I don't know. I know most of them were brass mounted but I like the iron and since mine will have a mix that would probably put it in the later time period. But I have some pictures of an original that is documented and is suppost to be from around 1835 that is all brass except for an iron patchbox. It also has a long tang on it and its flint so who knows. Thanks,Dew