browning barrels

[tricorn hat]

Apart from the commercial stuff, [Laurel Mountain Forge, Plum Brown etc] what is a good SLOW browning solution?

[smallpatch]

Time and humidity?  I've heard horse urine.... Anything slightly acidic?

LMF, Danglers, Wahkon , are all commercial products that work.  Why not use them?

All of them require the same conditions.... Time and humidity.

[JDK]

Just curious, why do you want to go "SLOW"?  I'd like to find a product that works faster, but with the same results.

If cost is a factor, I think you'll find the commercial stuff really is a bargain.  The 2 oz. bottle of Wahkon Bay is about $8 and I can do at least 2 barrels and some hardware with it.

Again, just curious.  Enjoy, J.D.

[Scota4570]

Unless you local humidity and temperature conditions are favorable rusting a barrel may be an issue.  I live out West.  The humidity can be low with a low temp.  A damp cabinet is needed to make any progress.  Getting the cabinet to work right is no easy task, condensation ruins the job.  Frankly, I us Birchwood Casey or various home brew quick browns.  If you do it right they look fine.

A word of warning on quick browns, avoid mercuric chloride.  It is a nasty poison that does not clear from your body easily.   Inhaling the steam from swabbing mercury browns on steel will make you sick for a long time. It is a serious neurotoxin. 

[Daryl]

When I was a kid, I used nitric acid - no gloves of course, too tough for that - fingers burned and throbbed from months. should have worn gloves. It made a really rough surface, but a nice brown.

[bob in the woods]

I spray my barrels with a 6% vinegar, or sometimes "Coke" and just hang them in a tree outside my shop.
Rub down with straw from the chicken house once a day and usually , after a week , they're done.

[T*O*F]

Even something as simple as a solution of table salt will brown a barrel.  Also Sawyer mentions that American backwoodsmen browned their barrels with Sal Ammoniac.  A 0.5% solution yields a satisfactory finish equal to that of salt after 5-6 passes.

[kaintuck]

I'm with JD......LMF and a nail in the bathroom is the kats meow!

I brown, then strip, then cold blue, then scotch right back.....my 1st barrel, was browned in a box I made, deep choc.....but now, I just hang in the bathroom.....all that steam makes it done in a week.....


I tried the oil burned method, and others on sample steel.....but came back to the LMF formula...the fellows a chem engineer that made it!!

Can't fix perfection in my book!

Marc n tomtom

[Long John]

If you have the time vinegar and rock salt works.  It takes longer than the Laurel mountain agent but in the 18th century both of those ingredients were readily available.  I suspect that sea water and vinegar would work just as well.

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[Ky-Flinter]

When I was a kid, I used nitric acid - no gloves of course, too tough for that - fingers burned and throbbed from months. should have worn gloves. It made a really rough surface, but a nice brown.

And the barrels came out looking pretty good too.

-Ron