need help with barrel finish

i want to keep the chrome finish or slightly brown it. but iwant to do it cold not hot. any suggestions?

 

[BS]

We need some more info, what are you going to use, hot or cold?

 

i have hot brown but would like to try it cold. has anyone tried this? will it work out well? how do i protect a baremetal barrel? :hmm:

 

[BS]

Does this hot brown have a name? ::

 

[Zonie]

i want to keep the chrome finish or slightly brown it. but iwant to do it cold not hot. any suggestions?

First, is the barrel chrome plated? If it is, it will not "take" a browning solution, be it hot or cold type because these all work by turning the steel/iron (not chrome) into ferric oxide.
On the other hand, if it is chrome plated, it doesn't need any further protection.

If you do not have a chrome plated barrel, the various brands of fluids will work.

The only commercially available "hot" browning I am aware of is Birchwood Caseys' Plum Brown. This is usually applied to a barrel which has been heated to about 280 degrees F.
The surface must be totally free of grease or oil (including the oil from your fingers when you touch it.)

I have not tried using this product cold, so I don't know what it would do.
It does contain mercury so don't handle it with your bare skin, and don't breath the fumes it gives off when it is applied to the hot surface.

If you would be content with a slightly irregular blue/black you could use one of the commercially available Instant Blueing products. There are several brands and they all seem to work. They will give fair to good protection to your barrel if you keep them oiled.

 

Just used some Birchwood-Casey to cold brown some iron/steel ramrod ferrels, and it seemed to work pretty good. Actually I had previously disolved about six inches of barbed wire in it to make some aqua fortis, which has'nt come out as reddish brown as I wanted, but is what I'll be using on the .40 I'm still futzin with, and am almost to the finishing stage. You still need to keep your metal super clean, and it works very slow compared to good ole LMF. For cold you need about three coats, before you card the metal. :m2c: Bill