Author Topic: coating the underside of a pinned barrel  (Read 2414 times)

Offline Tilefish

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 173
coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« on: February 27, 2019, 04:35:19 AM »
Hey everyone new to the forum and flintlocks. Have always shot percussion until i fired a flintlock the other day and had to have one. Got one on the way from Tip Curtis. Have never had a pinned barrel rifle before and was wondering what to coat the underside of the barrel and inside of stock with if anything. Sorry for the novice question just trying to learn thanks.
Chad

Offline rich pierce

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 18821
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2019, 06:16:46 AM »
Some use beeswax. On originals they let it rust from what I can tell.
Andover, Vermont

Offline Tilefish

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 173
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2019, 06:51:39 AM »
Thanks for the reply. The barrel is in the white and didn't want it to rust underneath
Chad

Offline redheart

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 592
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2019, 10:03:55 AM »
You can use Johnson Paste Wax on the barrel and the wood underneath it.

Offline Dave Tercek

  • Starting Member
  • *
  • Posts: 44
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2019, 03:28:14 PM »
Why not mask off the barrel at the wood line, then use a good primer and paint. Rustoleum ?
I guess this wouldn't be period correct . Just say'n.

Offline alacran

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2100
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2019, 04:03:53 PM »
This is something I do not worry about.
A man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.  Frederick Douglass

Offline Ky-Flinter

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7334
  • Born in Kentucke, just 250 years late
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2019, 04:25:08 PM »
Why not mask off the barrel at the wood line, then use a good primer and paint. Rustoleum ?
I guess this wouldn't be period correct . Just say'n.

Yikes!

-Ron
Ron Winfield

Life is too short to hunt with an ugly gun. -Nate McKenzie

Offline Stoner creek

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2707
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2019, 04:30:31 PM »
Why not mask off the barrel at the wood line, then use a good primer and paint. Rustoleum ?
I guess this wouldn't be period correct . Just say'n.
Not necessary unless you plan on storing it outside.
Stop Marxism in America

Offline Dave Marsh

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 801
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2019, 04:31:28 PM »
Why not mask off the barrel at the wood line, then use a good primer and paint. Rustoleum ?
I guess this wouldn't be period correct . Just say'n.

Yikes!

-Ron

Yikes times two.

Dave
"Those who give up freedom for security deserve neither freedom nor security."
~ Benjamin Franklin

Offline Jerry

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 518
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2019, 04:42:17 PM »
I coat the underside of my barrels with a generous coat of Bore Butter. Have never had any rust problems yet. I guess one could use any good paste patch lube.

Offline Mike Brooks

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13167
    • Mike Brooks Gunmaker
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2019, 05:27:46 PM »
This is something I do not worry about.
Ditto. Seems to not have been a concern long ago either. When I assemble a gun for the final time I may or may not put a light coat of oil on the bottom side. Depends on if I remember or not. When taking contemporary guns apart I don't often see rust.
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Online Daryl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14970
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #11 on: February 27, 2019, 10:13:06 PM »
I wipe the entire barrel down with WD40 on a patch, before reassembling.  It sits in the gun room until I shoot it again, I clean it afterwards, wipe it down again, reassemble it and store it - etc, etc.
Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a spaniel without ears" King George V

Offline Waksupi

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 339
  • Ric Carter, Somers, Montana
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #12 on: February 27, 2019, 11:45:58 PM »
I bed mine in with Johnson's Paste Wax. Put on enough to squish out when the barrel is put in, and wipe off the excess leaving a good wood/steel seal. Yes, it will help prevent rust, but I'm more interested in keeping water out of the barrel channel while shooting or hunting.
Ric Carter
Somers, Montana

Offline Tilefish

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 173
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #13 on: February 28, 2019, 01:58:26 AM »
Thanks for all the input. Guess I will just oil it and let it age like the rest of the barrel.
Chad

Offline Darkhorse

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1657
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #14 on: February 28, 2019, 09:23:19 AM »
I have used grease and it didn't work that great. Still got some rust. Now I use a couple of coats of Johnson's paste wax on the bottom of the barrel and stock. I also use the same wax on the visible metal and stock, buffed out good. This works the best, been doing it over 10 years now with no rust.
American horses of Arabian descent.

Turtle

  • Guest
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #15 on: February 28, 2019, 05:34:07 PM »
 Fluid film when I build it. Took one apart after 3 years and it looked pretty good. I also use fluid film liberally on the entire gun often and surly some seeps down into the mortice.

Offline yulzari

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 218
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #16 on: March 01, 2019, 09:58:49 PM »
I have been recommended automotive water pump grease as it is designed to work in water above boiling point.

The Royal Navy painted their barrels in the days of pinned barrels with a black japanning gloss finish. I quote from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)

 'The varnish for black japan consists essentially of pure natural asphaltum with a proportion of gum animé* dissolved in linseed oil and thinned with turpentine. In thin layers such a japan has a rich dark brown colour; it only shows a brilliant black in thicker coatings. For fine work, which has to be smoothed and polished, several coats of black are applied in succession, each being separately dried in the stove at a heat which may rise to about 300° F. Body colours consist of a basis of transparent varnish mixed with the special mineral paints of the desired colours or with bronze powders. The transparent varnish used by japanners is a copal varnish which contains less drying oil and more turpentine than is contained in ordinary painters’ oil varnish. Japanning produces a brilliant polished surface which is much more durable and less easily affected by heat, moisture or other influences than any ordinary painted and varnished work. It may be regarded as a process intermediate between ordinary painting and enamelling.'
* GUM ANIME, Gummi anime. From Hymenaea courbaril: used to make spirit varnish; soluble in alcohol. Gum cancame and Jamaica-birch rosin are sold for it. Actually most natural rosins will suffice. Essentially it is a species of thinned real yacht varnish applied thinly with black pigments and dried under heat.

Bootnecks (apologies, Royal Marines) had no ship to manage so they kept their muskets bright but the mateleots had better things to do so theirs were painted to preserve against rust at sea.
Nothing suceeds like a beakless budgie

Offline Pukka Bundook

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3342
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #17 on: March 01, 2019, 10:58:12 PM »
Good post, John.

I coat mine with deer tallow and don't get any  rust.  I rub it on warm, so it's melted and do the channel as well.

Mind, I haven't even Looked at some of them for maybe 20 years!  Mebbe I should....

Online Daryl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14970
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #18 on: March 02, 2019, 12:14:01 AM »
I remember a few years back, maybe longer than a few years?, when Barbie was still single, she posted pictures of a Flinter than had never been taken

apart for cleaning. The pits on the bottom of the barrel were pretty bad! Seems to me, the bore was not the best, either, in the breech.
Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a spaniel without ears" King George V

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

  • Member 3
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 12524
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #19 on: March 02, 2019, 08:42:06 PM »
When I see rust on the OUTSIDE of a rifle, I have serious doubts about the condition of the bore.  And I'm usually right.  If you can't keep rust off the part you can see, how can you keep it out of the bore?
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline MuskratMike

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2191
Re: coating the underside of a pinned barrel
« Reply #20 on: March 02, 2019, 08:59:55 PM »
If you don't care enough to maintain the outside of your rifle, don't be surprised that the bore is trashed. Might even still be loaded. It amazes me that fine rifles have lasted for 300 years and some people can't keep one in fine condition for 5 years!
"Muskrat" Mike McGuire
Keep your eyes on the skyline, your flint sharp and powder dry.