barrel brown, laurrel mountain forge process

[BlackNet]

Hello,

I put 2 coats of this on my barrel and I have some mixed results. I do believe I did something incorrect and I will be redoing it.

I used birchwood blue/rust remover to remove the blue, then sandpaper and steel wool to clean up the barrel afterwards. I cleaned it off with bore cleaner, love that stuff. anyways I used staining gloves for the entire process. I put the laurrel mnt stuff on with some patches and that is where I believe I screwed up.

Below you will see some photo's of the barrel on both sides. the brown is uneven and I will also be removing the sights, punching them off. I made several mistakes so anyone have recomendations, tips and the like on what I am doing incorrect and what I need to do to fix it?

thanks,

Ed

 

[gmww]

Hi Ed, keep putting on coats!!! It usually takes about 4-5 coats before it looks right. 2 coats is only the start of a good base. Just make sure when you put it on, its just enough to wet it not soak it. Also used a rough cloth between coats to wipe the loose rust off. Just don't go overboard on rubbing it off or you might rub off too much.

Final finish is when you stop the rusting process with Baking soda and coat it with something like oil. I used gun oil. Others have used oils ranging from olive to motor oil.

Just keep going you'll love it. :v

P.S. You might put a cork or rubber stopper in the barrel so you don't rust the bore.

 

[Bob Riegl]

:v I can only say you have not traveled an untrodden path. As was said above keep applying and carding, you are only part of the way there. I had this happen when I browned my first barrel---I was all set to junk the whole operation---pretty soon you will get a brown colour you will like, then you will neutralize. The rusting will not stop for several weeks---so keep wiping it down with an oil soaked paper towel or 4/0 or 5/0 steel wool also soaked in oil. And do plug the bore with a wooden dowel. :hatsoff:

 

[George F.]

From here it looks as if the barrel has a copperish color to iy...If it does then what you did wrong was to try to smooth out or recooat the solution as soon as it was applied. This can not be done with the Laurel Mountain browning solution.Get a resonable amount(not dripping) on yor swab applicator and in one continious motion without stopping apply the solution on one barrel flat...thats constant and continious with out stopping and DO NOT go back over and try to fill in the blank spots when you do that you apply a copper sulfate coating on the steel and the solution will not penetrate it to change it to ferric oxide(rust). Re-read the directions and it will go over this part After the barrel has rusted and looking real ugly ( hours later) you can card the rust and apply another coat following the same procedure. I know the instrustion sheet is small and the printing meant for people with real good vision but everything is covered on that tiny piece of paper. I usually apply 6 or 8 coats and it is a very durable brown. When you are done card the last browning coat and clean up with a nuetralizing solution(baking soda or washing soda... this is really inportant) when you are done nuetralizing the barrel you can heat the barrel with a propane torch (or the kitchen stove) and heat it enough so you can barely handle the barrel and apply linseed oil, wipe off the excess, let dry and you are done.....
Hope I helped.....George F.

 

[Cherokee]

I have done this once and might do it on my current project.
After about 2 or 3 coats I oiled the barrel and thought it looked like crap. I then took 000# Steel wool to it and scrubbed off anything that would come off and oiled it.
I liked the look and after scrubbing off more and more over time it stablized and looks like an old patina now.

 

[BlackNet]

thank you all for the info. The ONLY thing that came with this was the bottle. there was NO sheet of paper at all.

I did go over it back and forward to get a good coating on it. I just did the sand paper thing and will apply some as was stated, one pass with a wet rag then other stuff for several hours. I did not know about the baking soda but will pull that out as well. What I did was made a stock rack with dowels sticking up and put the muzzle down over the dowel to coat it. that way I could touch the very tip of the tang and rotate it with out touching the barrel itself

I will most more on this tonight with the restults.

Ed

 

[gmww]

Sorry you don't have the instructions. Here is basically what it says. Wet the metal with a smooth wipe. Let stand 3 hrs. A humid enviroment works best. After 3 hrs., wipe the loose stuff off and wet again. Continue this process until you get the desired color.

When you want to end the process use baking soda to nuetralize the rust process. Oil or wax the rust to seal. The waxing or oiling will make the finish a little darker. Something to consider when you are trying to decide when to stop.

 

[crockett]

If you don't have instructions then let me run through it briefly. Take some cotton cloth and fold it into a 1" square and wet the cloth with the solution. It will be damp- not wet. You then give a wipe to the barrel- if you miss a spot- forget it- you can get that the next coat. Don't scrub the barrel- that's what creates the copper color. After 3-4 hours take a terry cloth rag and plenty of hot water and scrub the surface, then rinse in hot water and dry. The idea is to remove loose rust but ONLY loose rust, there's no need to over scrub.
If you have copper color streaking you can remove everything back to bare metal and start over but you may want to first let the metal sit for a longer period and not card between coats- the rust may take.
You may have to put on 7-8 coats. When the color looks okay wash with baking soda to neutralize the metal. Purists stop at this point but if you want a more even color a drop of linseed oil can be rubbed over the metal. Experiment on the bottom of the barrel to see if this is to your liking.

 

[Bountyhunter]

If it coppers up a bit, dont sweat it, just keep applying and the rust will push the copper off. I rust them a bit, and then card them with a green scotch bright pad in a sink of hot water, then keep doing it until you get what you want. The longer you apply and card, the darker and heavier the browning becomes. NOTE: Do not put your browned barrel in boiling water. That is the process for rust bluing, and it will go blue/black on you instantly.

Since I finished my stock with linseed oil and beeswax, I finished my barrel with it also. I had an oven that was large enough to hold the barrel, and I put it in the 300 oven until it was hot. I then wiped on the linseed oil and beeswax mixture, and then put it back in the oven and shut the oven off, letting it cool with the oven. In the morning, I took the barrel out, and it was cool by then, and it had cooked dry, and had a finish like a brown parkerizing.

Bill

 

[BS]

Laurel Mountain Forge

Oil and seal the bore.
Degreasing is not necessary, as barrel brown is formulated to remove all traces of grease and oil, the barrel can even be handled with bare hands at any time during the browning process (except while still wet with solution) without affecting barrel browns's ability to take

To apply barrel brown use a piece of clean cotton cloth folded into a pad about 1# square. Moisten [ring dry] pad thoroughly with barrel brown and apply to barrel. being careful to apply brown in a long even coat from muzzle to breech. Do not rub surface of the barrel with barrel brown. Apply barrel brown as evenly as you can with a single coat if possible. Rubbing the surface with barrel brown can cause a metallic copper colored film to form, that will impede the browning process. After applying the first coat of brown, set aside to work for 3 hours. after 3 hours apply a second coat of solution to barrel. The second coat, and all subsequent coats, is applied very sparingly to the barrel suface. only enought barrel brown should be applied to dampen the suface. this will minimize the chances of pitting due to too vigourous action, or streaking due to unevenness of application. Too heavy an application of solution can also remove the existing brown, lengthiening the browning process. after letting the second coat work for 3 hours, rub the surface of the barrel wtih a piece of coarse cloth dipped in hot tap water. this step removes the surface scale that has built up and evens the brown. after scrubbing the barrel, flood the surface with hot tap water and dry. repeat the cycle of applying barrel brown, letting work 3 hours and scaling barrel, 4 to 5 times more, until the desired color has been achieved.
Note: if you cannot get back to the barrel within 3 hours of applying a coat of brown do not apply another coat after scaling. just scale the barrel and set aside until you are ready to resume browning
To stop further action after browning has been coompleted, scrub the suface of the barrel using a saturated solution of hot tap water and baking soda [FRESH SODA]. rinse the barrel with clear warm water and allow to dry. to finish the barrel, apply wax or boiled linseed oil.

 

[BlackNet]

thanks! I really appreciate that. I am currently in the first coat, I removed what you see in the images above with sandpaper and starting over. I did one even pass.

Ed

 

[BlackNet]

OK!

I sanded and put a coat on, this is after around 2 hours. It started getting cold so I brought it inside and watching it rust. I will add an hour longer to apply the second coat because of the temp thing.

what's going to be very interesting is the lettering. It is still the copper color from the first run so there will be a color difference there, which is fine.

 

[gmww]

Hey Ed, by my watch you should have a couple of coats on by now. How's it turning out? :hmm:

 

[BlackNet]

she's actually looking quite good!

I was out taking photo's of my new blunderbuss this morning and took some of the barrel.

brought it inside last night and did the second coat, let it work it's magic overnight and this morning I was in for a treat.

Will add some more today and go from there. OH I also found if I wipe slowly it seems to get a more even coat.

Ed

 

[gmww]

If you like it now, wait till you see it after 4-6 coats. Just remeber that the amount of coats directly reflect to how durable it is. Looking good! :v

 

[BlackNet]

ahhhh yes, I do appreciate the help with this process. I have some real sexy chocolate brown results, just like fine wine it improves with age.

 

[gmww]

looking good!

 

[Old40Rod]

Just a few other hints:

1. I have found the "copper" color somewhat dependent upon surface smoothness. I just redid a pistol barrel for a friend that couldn't get anything but copper color going after 3 or 4 coats. He had smoothed everything up to about 400+ grit. I roughed the surface up a bit with 180 grit and presto!... lovely brown. Your barrel looks exactly like his when he brought it to me.... very smooth. You may want to consider roughing it up a bit if you don't end up with what you want.

2. I usually plug the barrel and flash hole with beeswax to prevent any rusting in the barrel during the browning process. It comes right out with boiling water.

3. I have put a few pistol barrels and knife blades I have browned in a rectangular cake pan after the final coat and covered them with boiling water... this gave me a very deep rich chocolate brown. You may want to try this on an old piece of metal, first to see if you like the color. It is in an interesting effect, probably similar to baking.

4. Real estate is location, location, location. Browning is humidty, humidity, humidity.

:thumbsup:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

You are sooo right about the humidity thing. I have used the Plumb Brown hot browning process for many years because I could not get rust going here in Colorado high country. It was hard to get an even color and was not very durable at all. I just finished my first barrel with the Laurel product and made a primitive humidity chamber from scrap lumber and a black plastic trash bag, works great.
Anyone like to buy a near full bottle of Plumb Brown? :haha:

 

[gmww]

Keep the bottle! God forbid but if you accidently nick your finish with something hard like say a pliers :shocked2: you'll wish you had it.