1750's Blue or Brown- Which fits the period?

[Atfulldraw]

Good Day,

I am working on a Colonial Smoothbore and nearing the finishing stage. I would like the gun to fit a late 1750's time frame. What would you suggest for gun finish? I am considering browning the barrel and bluing the lock and hardware. Thanks for the input.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

[Doc Arroyo]

This is a question that will get you differing opinions, and perhaps start an argument. eace:

With that said, browning seems to have gained popularity around 1810 to 1830. :hmm:

My choice for your gun would be a blued barrel, and lock left bright. I have left the lock alone in my rifle and smoothbore. After a few years they have mellowed to a really pleasing grey. It is also easier to see surface rust then it is on a browned lock! To tell you the truth, I might leave the barrel bright, and let it melow to grey. :redthumb:

 

[LSU TIGER]

Charcoal blue is very attractive and PC as well.

 

yep im with LSU on that , I would go with blue if its going to be a PC peice

 

manure, I just browned my Jaeger barrel two weeks ago. I thought there was a rust brown finish used on some F&I period rifles. If this is not the case in any way, shape or form I'll have to use some blue and rust remover on it and get it back to specs. My poor rifle has been through hell. However, the more I re-work it the more original looking it seems to become. I once used the BC blue and rust remover on a browned barrel and it ended up looking well aged. This may turn out to my advantage after all! Are you guys sure Jaegers barrels weren't browned?

 

lol
all you have to do is boil the barrel if you want it black the rust will blacken .

 

[tg]

I think the earliest mention of browning is in the mid 1770's at best, there are newspaper adds for blueing or browning in the 1790's I think HBC ordered barrels browned on trade guns in 1780, many of todays guns are browned when they should be fire blued or in the white.Naval jelly will remove the brown and leave a nice used grey patina finish that some folks like.

 

What we call a "brown" finish is used to imitate the finish acquired over the years when a gun "in the white" is used in the field and the constant exposure to the elements requires one to rub the rust from the metal and grease the surface to protect it.

Exposure to the elements 24/7 is something we do not usually put our guns through. You cannot prevent a layer of rust forming on a BP gun under those conditions, no matter how hard you work at keeping the gun greased.

A PC 1750 finish might be considered a layer of natural rust, well greased and rubbed smooth!

"Browning" simply imitates this finish and is thought to have been introduced as a uniform application of rust that was going to occur anyway.

Charcoal blue is PC but difficult for the novice to apply, what with dumping the parts in a charcoal pit and firing them up and all! Very distructive to the hardening effort on certain parts.

Wallace Gusler has written about several "black rifles" from the TN/VA area. Dark finished wood on rifles mounted in iron and all parts showing remains of the charcoal blue. That seems to have started about the Rev War era.

It is felt that most of the origional guns were sold in the white during this early period. Therefore rust would creep over the gun and give it an "aged patina" that included some pits and roughness to the finish.

You can immitate this by soaking the parts in clorox for an hour or so, letting them rust for a few minutes until they reach the stage you desire, then rinsing them off and applying grease or oil to stop the process.

Doing this may require that you also show wear patterns on the wood to match the age of the metal parts. Lightening the finish, at wear points, with elbow grease and scotch brite pads works well for that portion of the process.

No, it does not make the gun look like it is already 200 years old. It looks like a gun that was used on a year long hunt 200 years ago!

No, I do not do this to all of my guns, just to certain ones I use at historic sites for demonstrations. I also did it to a Dickert smoothrifle I just built to match the new wood and metal parts I used with the origional barrel and lock I built the rifle around.

If some of you have spouses that are keeping score; When the gun you just finished already looks like you've been shooting it for a year or two it is much easier to slide into the rack without even raising an eyebrow or a "when did you buy that one?" from across the room!

 

[Terry Zboril]

:agree:
Look at any modern cartridge gun that has "been to the woods".
I still have my first single shot .22 (ca.1960), and dad's single barrel 12 ga.(ca. 1948), that are a very nice PLUM BROWN, with light pitting.

Both were originally blued, but hard use,(rusting) and care(oiling), turned them brown, in a few decades.

I suspect that most original barrels, regardless of how the maker first finished them, turned brown in a relatively short time. After all,as you said, they were the tools of life in that era, and probably saw much more exposure to the elements in a year, than most modern muzzleloaders see in twenty years.

Regards,
Terry

 

soooo what they gents are saying is are you making a new gun or a gun thats been around for a while . most trade guns discribed in the HBC orders request a blued barrel, there are however some as well arouns 1800 that request a browned barrel and just as many of both that are requested in the white . so there is the facts my friend .

as i said above if you take an item that browned and boil it the rust will turn a nice black , keep it oiled and you will have a black that will last just as long as any brown.
if you want to see the black just find a rusted peice of metal and boil it for about 20 min as a test .

I myself like a good brown barrel or one left polished in the white to age on its own . thats my prefrence but im not rrying to be PC eather ,

 

[BLAHMAN]

If you leave the smoothbore in the "white" it will gradually create it's own patina. I did this with a couple of rifles and there isn't any way in my mind that I could artificially create that look. I recently did a smoothie in a cherry stock. The hardware was browned as was the barrel, it looks ok, but I think that after a number of times in the woods, it will take on it's own unique look. I anticipate that the cherry stock will darken with age and just look super with a browned barrel. All the guns I've made with cherry darken (I think they oxidize) with age, and they look great.

 

[r brandt]

Of the seven or so smoothbores I have built, Model C and Model D (per T.M. Hamilton's designation) they were of the 1680 to 1750 time period. Most of the models of that time period were left bright, neither browned or blued. A patina would develop and they would gray. The last time I saw my first smoothbore which is about7 yrs old now it had developed a vey nice gray patina.

Rob Brandt
San Diego

 

I removed the brown finish on my Jaeger barrel a couple of nights ago with BC blue and rust remover and now the barrel looks great! Grey patina with darker areas right up against the sights which in my opinion gives it a very authentic appearance. Glad I did it. I also opened the vent liner to 1/16" with a drill. Can't wait to see the results at the range.

 

[Keith]

:huh: How do you boil the barrel? Do you poor lots of boiling water on it?

 

no you get a pipe and thread one end so a cap will fit .
fill it with water and stand in your fire pit once water comes to boil add the barrel and let boil for 20 min

 

[tg]

What I call a brown finish and most buiders I know is a reproduction of the intentional browning of barrels that is documented in the 18th/19th century but the practice does have a limited time frame historicaly.Aging/adding patina to a barrel by a number of methods is a different thing and generally accepted as propper by most.

 

I want my rifle to look as if it has seen a few years of well maintained use. Not store bought shiny polished new and not looking as if it were dug up at Jamestown either. My Jaeger could've come over from Germany and be 20 years old or it could've been built by a German colonist a couple of years ago(which could explain the curly maple stock as opposed to the traditional walnut used on european built Jaegers). Just trying to put a story to my rifle.

 

Just trying to put a story to my rifle
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and thats what its all about ,,, IMO your on the right track

 

[riarcher]

http://www.militaryheritage.com/browning.htm

You may find that an interesting read. :hmm:

 

[makanaut]

many of todays guns are browned when they should be fire blued or in the white.

Just curious, what was the method of blueing? When you say fire blued do you mean the way the screw heads and such are commonly seen. Thanks.