• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Laurel Mountain Forge rust browning with humidity box?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
The only thing I do that I don’t believe is mentioned in LMF instructions is to coat the bore with lacquer to protect it from ‘rusting’ during the process. It easily cleans up with lacquer thinner when I’m done with the ‘rusting/bluing’ process.
I've always used car wax on a patch to protect the bore. It seems to work fine.
 
The instructions that come on the bottle are a bit oversimplified. Use the online instructions, they are a lot more informative. Fortunately for me I live in Florida so humidity and heat are not an issue! My barrel came out so dark it almost looked like I rust blued it except in bright light you can see the brown. The actual parts I did rust blue, the trigger guard and butt plate, are just ever so slightly darker than the barrel! It took about a day and a half. After I took a handful of damp baking soda and rubbed everything down and rinsed it with warm water. Then heated with a heat gun and soaked it in motor oil for 12 hours or so. Wiped it down and put some renaissance wax on it and assembled.
 

Attachments

  • 71008533080__CB837174-0348-4714-A65E-BA39F138AE47.jpeg
    71008533080__CB837174-0348-4714-A65E-BA39F138AE47.jpeg
    1.4 MB
  • IMG_0431.jpeg
    IMG_0431.jpeg
    3.8 MB
Trivial fact: New engine oil is "overbased", meaning it contains additives that make it slightly on the basic side of neutral pH in order to combat the etching effect of combustion acids such as carbolic acid that leak past the piston rings. Using new engine oil to set a brown finish seems like a good idea to me. Used engine oil may be slightly acidic.
 
Trivial fact: New engine oil is "overbased", meaning it contains additives that make it slightly on the basic side of neutral pH in order to combat the etching effect of combustion acids such as carbolic acid that leak past the piston rings. Using new engine oil to set a brown finish seems like a good idea to me. Used engine oil may be slightly acidic.
I use non detergent 30 weight engine oil.
 
i am finishing my rust box... i came into a bottle of Mark Lee slow (not sure how, i think he sent it to me by accident & when i asked if he wanted me to pay for it, he said never mind ... got a loyal customer for the price of a bottle of goop - pretty smart fellow) ...

been tinkering for almost a year with this ... a little here a little there .... i was gifted a chewed up 4x8 sheet of half inch plywood (which would be the major expense) and it's off square (came miscut) and now has a fan in the top and a heat lamp in the bottom ... the base and the lid are detachable (in case i need to change the bulb ... it's even got a plexiglass window ... probably the most overengineered, overdesigned tool in the basement ...

my wife calls it the "giant wooden badger" ... a reference to the Monty Python movie about the Holy Grail

TLDR: the English king makes a trojan horse in the shape of a rabbit, but they forget to get into it and the French throw it back over the castle wall ... the chief knight says "perhaps if we built this giant wooden badger..." English King: faceplant...
 
... the chief knight says "perhaps if we built this giant wooden badger..."
The badger is the one animal that's absolutely unafraid of taking on any size opponent, and usually wins, and, heh heh ... my state is the Badger state!! Wheeeee.....
 
I did a lock with Mark Lee Express brown last night, took about an hour and most of that was hand-carding. I really like being able to control the color by the temperature of the water used to set the brown.
 
Used Brownells rust browning and just hung it from the back gutter to heat up, and gave it several coats over a week and was pleased with the ease of good results.
 
Neither the instructions nor several videos I've watched say anything about using a humidity box when rust browning a barrel with Laurel Mountain Forge rust browning solution, so I understand it's not necessary. However - I'm wondering if any of you have used a humidity box with this product and whether that shortened the three hours interval between applications that the instructions call for?
It depends on where you live. Here in the AZ desert, I had to use a box since the humidity is so low it would take a very long time. A friend gave mea plastic box/tote. I put a bowl of water in and placed the barrel and other parts on some small fire bricks to keep them off the bottom. The sunlight and subsequent heat did the rest. I would check on it every couple of hours. Did a great job. Might have a Pic or two if curious.
 
Back
Top