Browning vs Bluing for 1760-1770 era long rifle

[Microsofttom]

I'm going to be building one of Jim Kibler's colonial long rifle kits soon, and I was wondering what would be a historical way of finishing the metal. I thought browning would be the way to go because that is done quite commonly, but in reading Shumway's Recreating the American Longrifle, he says that many original guns were in fact blued. Jim also talked about a process he does where he patinas the barrel into sort of a grey color. which one of these do you guys think is the most historical while also keeping glare from the barrel down?

 

[Phil Coffins]

The polish of the metal has more to do with glare then the finish you put on it.
001 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr

 

[rchas]

My understanding is that the oldest bluing process is charcoal bluing. A barrel was packed in charcoal dust, and heated to around 800f for a few hours. The color would range from a "peacock blue" to a dark blue gray. Rust bluing and rust browning were a late 18th century development. I have rust blued prewar style barrels simply because the thought of trying a charcoal blue on my expensive barrel scares me, and I figure the color is close enough!

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Use the search function. There have been hundreds of post about this over the years.

dave

 

[Art Caputo]

Yes, blueing, bare metal, in oringinal or an aged state would be appropriate for the dating of the Kibler Colonial. I ended up using Kiblers metal aging solution which can be nicely controlled to give an aged appearance to the desired level. It can also be used to age the brass components.