cold brown method

[Turtle]

  I is 20deg here and I have a dry, woodstove heated house. Unsurprisingly, cold brown didn't work well. I didn't want to build a a humidity box or shower with the barrel. Remembering how guns sweat when coming in from hunting when it's cold, I put the barrel out on the cold deck for a while then bought it back  in-repeated several tomes through several treatments. It seems to be working well.
                                                Turtle

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

You don't want water droplets forming on the steel...that will ruin your finish.  If you don't want to go the whole Monty and build a proper box, at least take an eaves trough, suspend your barrel on wires over a wet cloth (without touching the cloth!)and cover with a board.

[Jerry V Lape]

Living in the desert lack of humidity was a concern for me with browning as well.  Much the same as Taylor's suggestion, I split a piece of 4" pvc pipe lengthwise, screwed a couple wood feet on the one piece and inserted a couple cross wires to lay the barrel on.  Then with a couple pieces of damp wet towel placed in the bottom - covered the tray with the other half of the pipe. I left the ends open for circulation.   Cheap, quick and very effective.  I placed it on a shelf near a window where it got some solar heating - you could place it where your wood stove would provide a little warmth. 

[Turtle]

I understand your concerns, but it's working well. My shop is 50% humidy and the barrel just gets a little damp-no drops.  The brown looks even and fine. It takes app 5 hrs for the rust to form. One more cycle should do it.
                 Thanks,happy new year.

[Darkhorse]

How are you keeping the bore from rusting along with the outside?

[Daryl]

bore cleaned and oiled - then tightly plugged with wooden plugs- both ends or muzzle and nipple seat or vent.

[Joe S.]

Anybody ever try a vaporizer? Remember when I was a kid my Mom would have one of those gizmos for my brother when he was sick to help him breath?Sure would think it be the same as a hot shower going on next to your barrel.Wouldn't put it right on top of it but close by would think it would do the trick?

[rhbrink]

Anybody ever try a vaporizer? Remember when I was a kid my Mom would have one of those gizmos for my brother when he was sick to help him breath?Sure would think it be the same as a hot shower going on next to your barrel.Wouldn't put it right on top of it but close by would think it would do the trick?

I have a gun smith buddy that does that with rust blue he has a small bathroom off to the side of his basement shop and keeps it extra warm with a small space heater and has a vaporizer going at the same time works for him.

[Darkhorse]

bore cleaned and oiled - then tightly plugged with wooden plugs- both ends or muzzle and nipple seat or vent.

Daryl, I know how it's done as I've browned a number of barrels myself. What I was asking the "Original Poster" was how he is keeping the bore from rusting as I saw no mention of this in his posts.