Natural Patina

[Cowboy]

Bought an old custom Hawken type rifle. It's a .58 cal. The original owner used this gun as his Elk hunting rifle. Has a 32" barrel, L&R lock, double set, single lever triggers. Have to set the set trigger before the gun will lock. I'll check more into this once a put my hands on the rifle. Will get it on Thursday. Fit and finish is nice. All Iron Furniture. The older gentlemen who owned it put a rear peep sight on it but left the dove tail empty and ready to except a rear sight. It's missing a toe plate screw and also one of the wedge keys. Whiskey tone curly maple half stock. Bore is mirror bright. The old man really took pretty good care of it. It's an Idaho gun.

Now down to the meat of my question's. the browning on the rifle has faded off for the most part. Barrel,Lock,Furniture. It's completely covered in a brown speckled patina. No rust or pitting! Going to have to replace some screws and Hawken adjustable L&R rear sight. Already ordered that one. New Wedge keys.

I'm leaning heavily towards leaving the original patina on the gun as is! Just have to match anything new I put on it to blend in with the original patina?

This is so out of character for me!! First thing I always want to do is either rebrown or blue anything I lay my hands on. Not so with this one! I like the rough old used look on this rifle!

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is how do I add on the screws and rear sight and artificially put a aged patina on it!

Would appreciate some advice on different things I could try?

Respectfully, Cowboy :idunno:

 

[don hepler]

You can put browning solution, on the replacement parts. Let them rust and pull them back with steel wool or scotchbrite pad.

Get a piece of scrap metal and polish it out and try some browning. Or, you can get some 44/40 cold blue, and get a similar finish. If you leave 44/40 bluing on for a while, it will rust just like browning solution. You probably could work a combination, to achieve the look. It depends on the color. New browning looks like a Hershey bar and bluing can look black to a grayish patina.

The rust will look very different, once oil is put on it.

Most of the screws, used on those rifles have a flatter oval head, than on most screw heads. Track of the Wolf, should have the screws and LMF browning.

I agree with leaving the finish, like it is. Several coats of wax, will keep it protected.

 

[Spikebuck]

I'd just hot-brown those small parts and rub back rather than use the LMF cold browning routine. Since the other parts are not pitted or rough, you don't really need the "rust" texture look you can achieve with cold browning. Hot brown will give a smooth brown that, IMO, is just as good on small parts.

 

[cowboysteve]

Post up a picture. I love honest old patina on a rifle. Most of us take years of carrying a rifle for that great look. Besides, I'd like to see any rifle from Idaho, beings it's my home state.

 

[Cowboy]

cowboysteve, Will be receiving the rifle this coming Thursday. Will be glad to post some pics as soon as it comes in. :thumbsup:

Respectfully, Cowboy
BTW: It has sort of a Wyoming patina to it! Just a little different shade from Idaho! :haha: Just kidding!, It's an Idaho Hawken for sure!

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Honest earned patina is GOOD patina!

 

[Larry Akers]

Chlorine bleach will give a blotchy, speckeldy finish, Just use it like browning solution. Two or three applications should be adequate.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

One of the problems that we face is that unfortunately, it seems a lot of builders don't polish the steel on their parts before browning, which was done by the builders of their day. Instead they leave the finish left by the casting of the part on the part, which, since the original locks were forged, would never have been part of the metal.

A pitted surface would (imho) be the result of serious neglect by the owner, and should be avoided too. You're not going for the look of a century and a half of age on the rifle, previously owned by people who didn't know how to stop or prevent rust, or the look of an artifact.

So If you're trying to match the patina on a new part (rather getting a new brown finish on a part that supposed to be well used), perhaps you should think about plain old mustard, the condiment. It's vinegar based, it goes on with a pretty consistent layer (while plain vinegar beads up), it's slow and controllable. Just dab it on the part where it's exposed to view, and let the mustard go from yellow to brown, and dry. Then brush it off with water and a tooth brush, and repeat if you want the dark stain on the steel, darker.

LD

 

[Cowboy]

Will send some pics as soon as it comes in. FedEx sent me a change of delivery date notice that said instead of receiving the package on the scheduled delivery date, Thursday, It
had been moved to Friday. Got another change of delivery notification this morning that now says , Monday?

I realize it's coming from Idaho and has to pass through Wyoming where there's stagecoach robberies all the time! Maybe that's the problem? :haha: :haha:

Anyway, I appreciate everyone's advice and will send pics unless the stagecoach gets held up! :shocked2:

Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[bpd303]

Hope yours wasn't on that FedEx truck that got hit by the train.

 

[bpd303]

Ouch.... http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/38750698

 

[Cowboy]

Hope yours wasn't on that FedEx truck that got hit by the train.

That definitely has me real worried now! Fedex could have for sure sent that rifle on that truck! The reasons why is it could have left Idaho into Wyoming and down into Utah? It's a possibility.

Received another delivery date change notification about an hour ago. This has made it from the original delivery date which was supposed to be on this Thursday to Friday to Monday, now to the 31st which is now on Tuesday of next week!

I typed in the tracking number and this is what I got.

It shows that it FedEx picked up the rifle in Lewiston Idaho on 1/20/2017. Delivery date was scheduled for 1/26/2017 to Oakwood Illinois, where I live.

After it left Idaho it shows it arrived in Troutdale Oregon on Wednesday 1/25/2017. Hell, that is totally in the wrong direction!! :youcrazy: It said about an hour ago the delivery date was changed again to Tuesday 1/31/2017?

That now makes this the third delivery date change notification that I've received on that rifle! Remember now that FedEx originally took possession of that rifle on the 20th and now says it wont be delivered until the 31st! That's 11 days on the road!

I now have paranoid thoughts that the rifle could have left Idaho, made its way down to Utah, could have been on that truck, and the package some how survived and was shipped to Oregon? :idunno:

Something is definitely not right!

On the bright side the tracking history does show it departed Troutdale Oregon at 1:22pm on 1/25/2017 which was yesterday.

A little worried that when it does finally show up, I'm wondering what kind of shape it's gonna be in?

Anyway, I just hope that it's just incompetence on their part and not hit by a train!!! :haha:

I know this is way off my original topic and is a little dramatic to me. I always tend to think of the worst when stuff like this happens.

I'll let everyone know when it finally does arrive with pics like I was originally going to do so you can view the patina.

Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[Vaino]

Tried 2 times to ship a MLer through FedEx and both times they refused to ship and no amount of BATFE info changed their refusal. Had the same problem w/ USPS but they conceded when presented w/ the BATFE info....have shipped w/ them w/o further problems.

Not trying to cause anxiety on your part, but......Fred

 

[Zonie]

The problem probably is, the snow is a$$ deep to a tall giraffe over much of the Northwest.

The truck probably got buried in a snow drift somewhere and it took a few days to find it and dig it out.

 

[Cowboy]

Update!

Finally received the Hawken yesterday from FedEx after being 11 days since it was shipped so here's some pics that I promised. Like I had mentioned earlier I have new wedge Keys and rear sight and new ramrod already ordered from TOTW.

Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[StewartLeach]

Glad your new love didn't suffer the fate of one I bought new from Gun Works a few years ago. Tho' well packed in a carton reinforced with 1 x 4 boards along both sides, the stock was shattered right through the wrist. Sad, as wood had nice even figure. After two months of wrangling, UPS agreed to pay up. Three months after that the replacement rifle- with even nicer wood- arrived packed with a reinforcing frame all the way around the perimeter, and quarter inch plywood panels on each side. Bathroom scale said whole package weighed in at 19 pounds. I've kept that packing, against the day when I might have to ship a rifle.

Your rifle looks as though the stripes on the stock may be done Leman style, with dark stain or India ink. Fine rifle, put it to work.

 

[Spikebuck]

Looks good. :thumbsup: I'd leave all the patina just the way it is...heck...we try to make NEW guns look aged like that! :grin:

Let us know how she shoots.

 

[Vaino]

That's a nice looking Hawken. I don't think the "stripes" are man made....just possibly rubbed out slightly too much. On a stock made from a slab sawn blank, the most curl is on the bottom and top as w/ this stock. I wouldn't do anything w/ this rifle....the aging is good....Fred

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

A beauty she is! I'd leave it well enough alone.

Less the lock is a capper and is also on the wrong side, that is one good looking, honestly used rifle! Enjoy!

 

[Cowboy]

Was just wiping off everything to put a coat of Renaissance wax on and noticed on the bottom flat, up towards the barrel rib I could barely make it out but It's a Sharon barrel. I've done some research in the past about Sharon Barrel CO. The ramrod entry Pipe is unique and different from other hawken rifles. Went on Track's archive and found several Sharon Hawken 'a that they've sold through the years. This one is definitely a Sharon Hawken. Duno if it was one of their kits that they sold or if it's a factory build? Eveything perfectly matches up to all the examples I've seen. The barrel is a 1:72 twist and .012 groove depth. Should be a hell of a shooter! It spent its life bringing down Elk in Idaho. It was definitely a hunting gun. Now it's in retirement and will be a dedicated range gun now.

Respectfully, Cowboy