How much metal polishing before browning

[hockeyref]

What level of sanding or polishing do you take the barrel and other metal parts to before browning, rusting, "peeing" on it, or whatever process you use on them? Draw file, 60grit, 120 grit, 240 grit, 400 wet, 600 wet, mirror polished?

 

[jimmy82]

Depends on how you plan to brown. Hot browning can be more polished, cold browning you'll want to stop around 400 grit.

Reasons are, the hot browning uses direct heat and chemically alters the surface steel right away. Cold browning takes time and humidity, the more polished the steel the harder it is for the rust to take hold.

 

[Mike Brooks]

I draw file and that's it.

 

[Roy]

I draw file and that's it.

same here

 

[Vaino]

Draw file and a very light rub w/ 220 grit to rid the corners of burrs caused by the draw filing...Fred

 

[MikeChapin]

I draw file and that's it.

Me too.

 

[Black Hand]

drawfile...

 

[erzengel]

Starting with 180 grit up to 1000 grit and than polishing with a dremel and polish for the dishwasher.

But that was the frist and only time up to now.

I think I should have polished the barrel more. On the barrel are spots, the combined tang breech plug is smoother.

Just learning by doing.

 

[hockeyref]

I have not fully decided on whether I will use LMF, Heat it up & "P" on it, leave it sitting in my damp basement next to the kitty litter boxes to develope a "natural patina" or warm it up and rub it down with vinegar, wrap it in vinegar soaked rags for a couple days...

I'm thinking back a few years to my welding and metallurgy background trying to remember what I used to etch polished samples... Kinda wish I still had access to the metallurgy lab and all those chemicals... I remember that ammonium hydroxide and hydroflouric acid would really whup on stuff and you had literally seconds to put it on and rinse it back off before it turned the formerly mirror polished sample black... Don't wanna consider messing with those outside of a chem lab hood. Acetic, nitric, hydrochloric, sulfuric acids would all be candidates....

 

[crockett]

I have found that sometimes if you over polish it is harder to get the metal to rust and the rust may not be even. You don't want too rough a surface but if you go to about #220 then you should be fine, the final brown will be just as fine as if you polished down to #600 or finer because the rust itself will have a certain roughness. In other words, at least for me, trying to polish to a really fine level is counter productive, the #220 finish gives just as good, and more easily obtained, results.
If you do draw file remember the file can pick up bits of steel that act like a tooth and will gouge the finish on the next stroke. If draw filing is to be the final finish wipe the file between each stroke.

 

[jimmy82]

I usually pick up a few dings during draw filing. Which is why I sand down. I don't use wet sanding though. I used some 4-0 steel wool on my last barrel after the 400 grit and it came out like crockett said, almost exactly the same as the barrel before it which I had stopped after the 400 grit. It also took another coat or two of LMF to get an even look.

 

[Zonie]

If your using one of the cold browning solutions they will work very poorly if the surface of the metal is smoother than what would be produced with new 220 grit wet/dry paper.

Birchwood Caseys Plum Brown doesn't care what the surface finish is so long as it is totally oil/wax free.
Because it doesn't actually eat into the metal it will work on a polished barrel.
The result will be a polished brown barrel that doesn't look like a real browning.

 

[ssettle]

I've browned a few barrel using the Birchwood Casey formula. I would polish the metal using 600 grit paper and heat. It seem like every time I would use the stuff I'd have to go back and redo it because it would develop a copper finish that would stop the browning process. The second time around the browning would turn out great.
I did a gun several years ago that has the best brown job I've ever seen but it was a very long process. I got things started using the hot browning process followed by cold browning over a period of almost a year. I did the job in a damp basement, I would wipe the barrel down with water and let hand for a few days and then card it and wipe down again. The water solution was a very weak mixture of the Birchwood Casey hot brown without heat. I have yet to see a gun that has a barrel as deep a brown as that rifle. It has a finish that looks like 600 grit sandpaper and went deep into the metal. :thumbsup:

 

[Zonie]

The copper on the barrel from Plum Brown comes from not having the metal hot enough and then rubbing the area.
The low heat doesn't evaporate the fluid fast enough and the rubbing or reapplying more fluid causes the copper in the solution to plate the steel.

This same copper plating can happen with some of the slow rust "cold" types of browning fluids too.
Laural Mountain (which I consider one of the best) is known to apply copper if it is rubbed or extra coats are applied before the existing coat has dried.

 

[Birddog6]

Draw file it. Brown it in a steamy bathroom using Tru-Brown, card it witg a Dixcel wheel & have a deep dark durable browning job done in under 24 hrs.

 

[Pasquinel]

What do you mean by card it? What is Dixcel wheel?