Plum or Brown?

[Sparkitoff]

Putting together a lightweight small bore double. Stock is medium brown walnut and action is color case. Not trying to be HC or mimic anything. Can decide between plum, brown or blackened for barrels. If brown or blackened, probably Laurel Mtn Forge formula. Since this is a hunting smoothbore, posting this question here. Which one and why?

 

[Panama Red]

LMF brown. Because that’s what I used… LOL!
It’s really up to what you want it to look like. I used LMF brown because there was no heat involved. Wipe it on, card it off, repeat. It looks great. Also, if I want it black, I can just boil the barrel. But I’m liking it brown.
And now you will probably get two dozen responses, all saying the same thing I just said, but for a different product.
Enjoy the build!
-Red, did it right… maybe…

 

[Grenadier1758]

A cold brown to take the shine off. A cold brown because it is easier to apply that the hot browns. A cold brown because it's now summer and you can set the browned materials in the trunk, cab or back of a van in the hot sun to get the color to a very nice nearly black brown. A cold brown because @Sparkitoff is now getting days of high humidity to better get the desired even browning of the metals.

 

[Panama Red]

A cold brown to take the shine off. A cold brown because it is easier to apply that the hot browns. A cold brown because it's now summer and you can set the browned materials in the trunk, cab or back of a van in the hot sun to get the color to a very nice nearly black brown. A cold brown because @Sparkitoff is now getting days of high humidity to better get the desired even browning of the metals.

That was a lot better than my reason.

 

[windini]

Blackened (rust blued) because Life is the journey, not the destination. Ergo, more work = better, right?

And b/c windini paid a guy to make a rectangular steel boiling tank and by gosh, windini gon' use it!

Also, I really like the depth of color and contrast between the dark steel and medium brown stocks.

 

[dave_person]

Putting together a lightweight small bore double. Stock is medium brown walnut and action is color case. Not trying to be HC or mimic anything. Can decide between plum, brown or blackened for barrels. If brown or blackened, probably Laurel Mtn Forge formula. Since this is a hunting smoothbore, posting this question here. Which one and why?

Hi,
A good smooth rust brown is the ticket. LMF browning is fine although I prefer Wahkon Bay if I can find it. Doubles have a lot of barrel area so a rough, grainy, uneven brown will look terrible. Polish the barrels, then degrease them thoroughly, and coat them with browning solution sparingly. I use a swab and just make one pass on the metal. Then let rust just for 5-6 hours. Don't let it rust overnight. Card off the rust using a tooth brush or better, a very soft steel brush wheel the kind made by Grobet. Use the wheel in a lathe, drill press or drill but spin it at very low RPMs, perhaps 200-400 so no heat is built up. After carding, apply another coat of browning and let rust for 2-3 hours before carding. Repeat the shorter cycles as many times as needed to get a smooth, even brown color that is almost translucent. Finally rinse the barrels with hot water, dry and wipe with oil.

dave

 

[Panama Red]

I thoroughly underestimated the quality of replies you would get. Good stuff!

-Red, thinking of just deleting his reply after the big boys checked in…

 

[Sidney Smith]

I've used LMF, and Birchwood Casey Plum brown. I prefer the plum brown. LMF produced a crappy mottled finish on my smoothbore. Plum brown was a nice smooth brownish to purplish brown, however you want to call it. Hot brown to me is much easier than the cold humidity controlled crap!.

 

[dave_person]

Hi Sidney,
I've used plumb brown in the past. I do not like the cold purple brown color it leaves and it does not look authentic. The mottled finish on your smooth bore from rust brown is either 1) you did not degrease it properly, and/or 2) you did not do enough brown, rust, carding cycles to even out the brown. Here are examples of rust browning done properly and one at least used LMF browning solution. This one was allowed to rust quickly to create a textured matt finish on the barrel.

This smooth beautiful brown was done the same way as above but the rusting time shortened greatly to produce a smoother finish.

This barrel was highly polished and browned as I wrote in my previous post. The only difference is it was scalded with hot (not boiling) water between coats.

This barrel was highly polished and then browned as I described above but then immersed in boiling water to turn the brown blue.

This barrel is browned using a diluted solution similar to LMF or Wahkon Bay browning applied to an original stub twist barrel. Again, many coats, short rusting period, soft carding, repeated many times.

Method, practice, and experience make the difference.

dave

 

[Panama Red]

Hi Sidney,
I've used plumb brown in the past. I do not like the cold purple brown color it leaves and it does not look authentic. The mottled finish on your smooth bore from rust brown is either 1) you did not degrease it properly, and/or 2) you did not do enough brown, rust, carding cycles to even out the brown. Here are examples of rust browning done properly and one at least used LMF browning solution. This one was allowed to rust quickly to create a textured matt finish on the barrel.

This smooth beautiful brown was done the same way as above but the rusting time shortened greatly to produce a smoother finish.

This barrel was highly polished and browned as I wrote in my previous post. The only difference is it was scalded with hot (not boiling) water between coats.

This barrel was highly polished and then browned as I described above but then immersed in boiling water to turn the brown blue.

This barrel is browned using a diluted solution similar to LMF or Wahkon Bay browning applied to an original stub twist barrel. Again, many coats, short rusting period, soft carding, repeated many times.

Method, practice, and experience make the difference.

dave

That boiled one is gorgeous! The one thing I will do different on the next one is to card lightly with 0000 steel wool. I used denim, and it didn’t provide the smoothest finish. It did turn out a very nice, even brown though.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I used Wahkon Bay True Brown solution. I make a fixture to hold the barrel in the back of my minivan. Summer temperatures of about 90 degrees F and St. Louis summer humidity made the perfect browning oven. Following a process of short rusting times, light carding and several freshening of the cold brown solution resulted in a wonderful dark brown color on the barrel of my Harper's Ferry rifle. The lock was blued as described in the Harper's Ferry documents. I love the way this rifle turned out.

I'm not going to show the Birchwood Casey Plum Brown finish on my CVA Mountain rifle as that version of the solution is no longer available due to the hazardous materials used. I can't speak for the modern solution.

I've had problems with LMF even after carefully degreasing the parts, the result was too coppery in color and somewhat mottled.

 

[dave_person]

Hi Grenadier1758,
The copper color comes from putting too much solution on the barrel. Take a Q-tip or cotton swab and apply the browning with one wipe over the surface. This is a case in which more is not better. You will never see that coppery residue if you do as I describe.

dave

 

[Grenadier1758]

Thanks, Dave

 

[Ballshooter]

Plum brown on my .62 and my kibler 58 smoothbore

 

[Sidney Smith]

I followed the directions on the bottle of LMF to the letter, and it didn't work for me. I don't know how that can be construed as I didn't fobit right!

You use what you want. I'll do the same!