Etching a Barrel

[Oregonjohn]

Hello all. I am gonna do a project to age a Blue Ridge flinter to make it look old and used. I plan on removing the barrel browning with naval jelly. I wish to "gently" etch the barrel before adding some goop (a la Larry Williams in Backwoodsman Mag) to softly highlight the etching. Now, am open to suggestions on what to use to etch this barrel. I don't want to do the boiled bleach thing....any ideas?
Many thanks and all the best,
John in Coos Bay, Oregon

 

[Zonie]

Well, I'll confess I don't know what the "boiled bleach" thing is.
I do know what the unboiled raw bleach did to my replica confederate pistol (as shown in the Photo section under Schnider & Glassic.
I soaked the parts in the raw bleach for about 10 or 15 minutes and it did a number on them. After washing and oiling the "aged" parts it left the finish uneven and rather natural looking in an uncared for 140 year old way.

I do not know of other methods but I think a even coat of nitric acid, or sulfuric or hydrochloric acid will give off some really nasty fumes and end up just frosting the surface.
Compared with any acid I can think of which would do the job, bleach is almost harmless.

If anyone else knows a method, please reply so we can all learn.

 

[Oregonjohn]

Hey Zonie. Larry Williams of Early Rustic Arms wrote an article in the most recent Backwoodsman Magazine. In it he says to make a PVC tube with a glued on base, chuck up the barrel with a dowel wrapped in teflon tape, plug ye olde vent hole and pour boiling bleach in...he also suggests using boiled bleach on the parts both iron and brass. I intend on using amonia in a big jar and suspend by brass from small wires over the amonia to tarnish 'em. Gonna do the stock in a mix of Minwax Antique Oil mixed with rit black powdered dye. Now he goes on to say light it on fire with a torch on low flame for a really old finish...uhhh, I don't know if'n I will get that drastic. It's a neat article nonetheless and some good ideas on artifically agin' a smoke pole. Not that the finish will make a Blue Ridge look "earlier" but I am gonna like it and as the man says, ya gotta please yerself.
Now all that bein' said, I am most certainly open to any otherideas on aging a front stuffer to look old and used. At my rate of using it due to some crappy old bones, it would be til the year 2355 to make it look aged...and then only a little.
All the best from the Oregon Coast,
John in Coos Bay

 

[Zonie]

Patented Aging Process: Teenaging
Having had two of them I can say first hand that letting a teenager have your gun for a few weeks without supervision will start the aging process. Then let them take it to a few desert or backwoods parties and let them loan it to some of their friends for about a month. Oh, I'm sorry, you didn't want to go beck to the pre flint age? Then make the "friend loan" only about 1 week long. That should do it.
Be warned!! This process is much more radical than setting your trusty gun on fire or burying it in a pile of horse dung for a year. That is mild by comparison.

I accidentlly did this to a Gretch New Yorker I once owned. Note, I said once owned. After the patented Teenageing Process even the strings wern't worth saving.
:curse: :curse: :boohoo:

 

[Deadeye]

Not sure just what the method of application was but I've seen several barrels and metal parts that were reportedly aged with "sheep dip" and it makes the boiled bleach look mild.