Browning Steel

[RJR]

Has anyone ever heard of browning a barrel or other steel parts using vinegar? An old timer (30+ older than me and I'm 51) at the club was telling me today that when he used to build a gun back in the 40's and early 50's, he used vinegar to brown the barrel. Said it was before we had all these fancy chemicals to do it like we have now. Is he pulling my leg, or would this really work? Having to find out if this will work, I took an old steel butt plate, sand blasted it, cleaned it w/ acetone and rubbed it down with white vinegar. I'll let you know the results if anything happens.
:hmm:
Rick

 

[44-henry]

Sure it would work and has been done many times before, in realty you really don't need any chemical to brown metal, in a humid atmosphere degreased steel will rust quite well and if carded frequently it will give you the brown you look for. Chemicals help speed the process and do, in some instances, give finer finishes but they aren't absolutely necessary. I work for a quality control department in a concrete company and I frequently use vinegar to clean the cement buildup on my testing equipment, slump cones will come out of the vinegar clean and will start rusting almost instantly if not cleaned of the vinegar immediately.

 

[WV_Hillbilly]

I had one old timer tell me to save my urine and use it to brown a barrel with... now that's called being resourceful!
:shocking:

pee-yew!
WV_Hillbilly :crackup: