Antique a barrel ???

[bowfish]

A few years ago I saw a brown bess that had a great patina on the barrel and lock I asked the owner how long that took,he told me the gun was 4 months old and he had the builder give it a antiqued look to the metal. I am getting a used brown bess and was wanting to to the same to it. So was wondering how this is done. ::

 

[Cherokee]

Theres chemicals out there that make a brown patina. It works just like regular gun bluing but leaves a brown color.
I tried doing it and the rusting never stopped. Every couple of days it was rusting.
It came out uniform and I followed the instructions to the letter but it never seemed to stop.

 

[Griz]

I had a rifle that was finished with slow rust browning, it was made to rust. The only thing I found that stopped it was Browning gun oil with rust inhibitor. After a lot of shootin and cleanin' and coating with the oil it finally stopped rusting.

 

[rich pierce]

Depends on what you're looking for. There's color and there's finish. If you want some pitting this can be accomplished in several ways but I advise against a uniform pitting.

Bleach can be used and some folks will actually boil a plugged barrel in bleach (outdoors in a trough) but that obviously pits the barrel uniformly and there's no such thing on originals. So- you can apply bleach for varying periods of time (think damp cloth, tow, lint to hold it on there) and then wash thoroughly and look for pitting. Then cold-blue it and the pits will show dark when you polish it out a bit (rub off the bluing).

Naval jelly will also pit the metal if you leave it on a while, as will nitric acid. But be careful with the nitric as it can eat the metal up.

"Fly ash" or the ash from a forge is full of acids and if you make a paste and leave it on the barrel and lock it will also pit the metal.

Then of course there is the burying in manure trick.

Then you want to achieve some color and this can be done with browning and bluing treatments and carding it off in such a way as to achieve the clor and degree of variation you desire.

If you want to keep it very simple, I'd finish the gun "bright" then brown or cold-blue the barrel and lock and rub almost all of it off except in the places that are always hard to clean and always get a little rusty. Around the pan, the frizzen spring area which is hard to clean and dry, anything forward of the cock, the rear sight area, and the barrel beside the lock are where you want to focus to give a slightly worn look.


Here's an example of a light patina on the lock and trigger guard. Plus I forged a "frontier replacement" frizzen spring and roughly riveted the pan to the lockplate instead of screwing it, to strengthen the impression of a well-used gun.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I put a light patina on my in-the-white Bess by getting the barrel absolutely clean (acetone wipe) and then rubbing it with slices of, I kid you not, MacIntosh apples. Every 15 minutes I would rub a slice into the metal and then wipe the barrel lightly with a clean cotton rag to remove any standing water or chunks. After about 3 hours of repetitions, I wiped the barrel down with alcohol, then oiled it, then rubbed beeswax over it as a protective wax.

If you get a spot with a dark stain or smear, you can buff it out with a 3M pad & light pressure and then "spot patina" it to match. In-the-white was a lot easier to keep than I thought it would be. I just lightly re-waxed it after a shooting & cleaning.

 

[GobblerKnob]

You must neutralize the chemicals used to encourage the parts to rust, otherwise, they will continue to rust. This is done by scrubbing the parts with baking soda diluted in water. After you have done this, heat up the barrel and other parts with a torch. Just enough to make the residual water evaporate. Go over the parts with linseed oil while they are still hot and this will "set" the finish. I have had very good success doing this. Here is a lock I just finished doing it that way.
Rick

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v301/rngrik/Longrifle%20Photos/2eb36643.jpg

 

[bowfish]

Rich, I like the looks of that lock what steps did you use to get that patina? I called TVM and asked how they did there guns and Matt said they cold browned the parts and then he used a fine wire wheel on a bench grinder. You said to rub it off what would you reccomend to rub or work down the browning. When you rub this off or use a wire wheel are you removeing all the browning. I guess what Iam trying to say is the blue or brown is to help to fight rust if you rub that off will the gun rust faster.Is it back to a in-the-white stage?

 

[rich pierce]

Rich, I like the looks of that lock what steps did you use to get that patina? You said to rub it off what would you reccomend to rub or work down the browning. When you rub this off or use a wire wheel are you removeing all the browning. I guess what Iam trying to say is the blue or brown is to help to fight rust if you rub that off will the gun rust faster.Is it back to a in-the-white stage?

I filed the lock with finer and finer files then polished the lock bright, all the way to rubbing with pumice on a stick and a piece of leather. I do suggest everyone finishing rifles get a big can of pumice (coarse) at Woodcrafters if they have a store in their area. This is probably what was used to polish steel, brass, varnished finishes, most anything. If not, they should have used it!

To develop a patina on the lock I applied aquafortis (1 part nitric acid to 3 parts of water)4 times and let it rust up in a damp back room for about 2 hours each time. Each time I rubbed off the resulting surface rust with a towel, under water. I made sure I rubbed it better where it's easier to rub it better, just like a lock gets cleaned better in some areas than others. Then I applied the fast blue (Birchwood Casey) and let that darken the lock. That is almost instantaneous. The blue/black color got rubbed off with water-soaked denim loaded up with pumice powder. I just do this under dribbling water and quit when I get the gray color I want with little specks for pitting.

I am still working on the patina on the gun. I have the brass about where I want it and will work to pit the breech of the barrel and the tang area a little more. I will also build up a little crud on the stock in the "hollows". This is my first attempt at "aging" a gun. Thankfully I'd bought the parts so long ago I stopped counting the cost.