Browning Help.

[jdkerstetter]

Yep, Chuck is the man, well him and Don Stith. Hardly matters in this case though, as no matter how you finish the parts on this gun it is a Hawken in name only and bears no resemblence to the real McCoy.

Nothing wrong with that, just the marketing is misleading. Enjoy, J.D.

 

[rustyh]

JD no offence taken I just wanted to clear some things up. The brown on my GPR is more of a chocolate color, putting it in the ATF helps to give it the darker finish (which I like) it isn't the brownish red that the LMF brown produces. I'm not putting LMF down I have also used it I just prefer the BC finish. As to the durability of the BC Brown I have a 45 cal Mowrey that I refinished 25 years ago the BC finish still looks good and I have chased alot of rabbits with it.

 

[jdkerstetter]

With so many tools there number of ways to skin this cat. :wink:

Just funny how everybody has their favorites and facinating how different folks can achieve different results with the same poduct.

Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work. Enjoy, J.D.

 

[LaBonte]

Original Hawken finishes:

The few Hawkens in good enough condition to see original barrel finish are blued. The blue is fairly dark. I like the color I get by doing a satin slow rust brown, followed by boiling the barrel in water to duplicate the color. When doing the rust blue, don't overpolish or you get too bright a color. It is not the deep translucent blue seen on European guns. The rib and thimbles were also blued.
The breech and tang were case hardened as well as the lock, butt plate, trigger guard, trigger bar, entry thimble and nose cap. Not the highly colored case of modern firearms but a mottled grey case that some of the early makers called forge casing.

Per Don Stith

 

[Reb_Cav2]

LaBonte,
Thank you for reposting this information. With the Brass Thimbles and nose plate that might be hard to make Blue but the Rust Blueing process might be fun for the boys and since one wants Browned the other wants blue they can both have their own way on the same gun. :grin: Thank you again for passing this along
Respectfully
Reb