Restoring a neglected Traditions Kentucky Rifle

[Chgowiz]

I should also mention that the bore looks like I can shoot with it. There is some pitting at the end, near the muzzle, but the rest looks in decent shape. I used a little fishing lure light to be able to see down the bore. Like I said earlier, this will be a fun shooter, once-in-awhile kind of thing. If I want to go full tilt into muzzleloaders, I'll probably go with a modern, new(ish) gun.

 

[user 48679]

Question... is it normal for the portion of the hammer that hits the nipple/cap to have that notch in it at the top?

Yes, normal.

The notch does a few things, like directing any firing blowback upwards, and allowing expansion room for the fired cap (making removal a bit easier).

 

[Stykbow]

I’ve stripped and re-blued several guns due to rust spots. The bluing was always lighter at the areas that were rusted. No matter how much I sanded and cleaned it always happened. That may be what you’re running into with the browning solution. I’m hoping someone jumps on and tells us we’ve both been doing something wrong! You’ve come along way from where you started with this rifle. Good job.

 

[Chgowiz]

Yes, normal.

The notch does a few things, like directing any firing blowback upwards, and allowing expansion room for the fired cap (making removal a bit easier).

Thank you, makes sense!

 

[Chgowiz]

I’ve stripped and re-blued several guns due to rust spots. The bluing was always lighter at the areas that were rusted. No matter how much I sanded and cleaned it always happened. That may be what you’re running into with the browning solution. I’m hoping someone jumps on and tells us we’ve both been doing something wrong! You’ve come along way from where you started with this rifle. Good job.

Well, it certainly has not gone how I thought it would, appreciate the encouragement!

 

[windini]

Well, it certainly has not gone how I thought it would, appreciate the encouragement!

The learning is the fun! Well, part of it, anyway. In the end, you'll have a family heirloom that was in part your doing, so you can't really go wrong.

My experience: I have only rust blued 2 older ML barrels, so I don't think of myself as any kind of expert! That said, both of mine were not uniformly colored when I started but ended up very uniformly blued after my ... er, METS* treament.

The key for me was degreasing. I used Brownell's imitation of Pilkington's Rust Bluing liquid, and followed their instructions. After wire brushing each barrel, I wore nitrile gloves and wiped it down thoroughly, several times, with acetone & a bunch of "blue rags" paper towels. I switched to a fresh towel frequently so I wouldn't just be smearing oils from point A to point B.

I also prepped some degreased #0000 steel wool; put some in a ceramic bowl, added acetone, and dunked & squeezed to get any residual mfg'ing oil out of the steel wool. I used a hunk of degreased steel wool to "card" the powdery residue off the barrels between bluing solution applications.

Once everything was degreased, I made sure I never handled a barrel without wearing gloves until the bluing was done. (This was relatively easy to remember since I boiled mine & they were often too hot to touch!) I handled the barrels by the rubber stopper in the muzzle and a Harbor Freight needle-pick with a sort of hook-eye end going through the screw hole in the tang.

The first attempt came out splotchy after 1 application & boiling/carding, so that's when I got serious about degreasing. I wire-brushed that one again and started over. I subsequently found out that each application doesn't necessarily produce uniform rust/color results, but that the cumulative effect is uniformity of color as long as I did my careful-handling part.

Crummy cell-phone picks of the first one (FIE Kentucky Rifle) - but I think you can tell an improvement from "before" to "after." It looks much better in 3D reality!

____________________________
*Nothing to do with baseball! More Enthusiasm Than Skill.

 

[Chgowiz]

@windini - thanks for the kind comment and encouragement. I had tried using Windex for the degreasing, after each application, but it just seemed to wipe the progress right off. I do have some acetone, I can give that a try. I've gone from using steel wool to using denim rags that I've cut from old worn jeans. That seems to remove the excess rust and leave the rest on, but my barrel is far from looking as good as yours. I'll keep plugging away.

 

[Mtman725]

CW nicely done, I truly enjoy doing just want you have done. I am just fishing a CVA mountain rifle waiting for the barrel to come back from re boring. Good Job.!

 

[windini]

@windini - thanks for the kind comment and encouragement. I had tried using Windex for the degreasing, after each application, but it just seemed to wipe the progress right off. I do have some acetone, I can give that a try. I've gone from using steel wool to using denim rags that I've cut from old worn jeans. That seems to remove the excess rust and leave the rest on, but my barrel is far from looking as good as yours. I'll keep plugging away.

Keepin' at it 'till you find what works is the name of the game!

I should clarify that I didn't use acetone or any other solvent after I started the bluing process; I just degreased thoroughly before starting, then handled the metal either indirectly (stopper & HF pick tool) or with nitrile gloves on. I let the degreased steel wool drain & dry, then stored it in a dry bowl covered until I needed a hunk to card with.

Also, I had a local shop make a rectangular tank for me & I boiled my bbls between coats of solution. That converts the ferric oxide (red rust) to ferrous oxide (black "bluing"). I believe the difference is browning vs. bluing - if you don't boil, but card the red residue off the steel between coats, then card & oil the final coat, that's browning. Boiling/steaming, then carding the black residue off (& oiling final coat) is bluing. (Still not the same as modern hot salt bath bluing.)

(Someone please correct me if I got that wrong!)

Pic of my set-up (tank conveniently fits diagonally across 5-burner gas stove. Wish I could say I planned that, but just got lucky after it was made!)

 

[sturmkatze]

Chgowiz, try Birchwood Casey's degreaser. Really scrub it.if still take a few coats to start getting browned. Lightly card it with the steel wool every day, I used to hang the barrel on my bathroom so the shower steam would help. (make sure to plug the barrel).

Anyway, it will take a good week or so. Did for me. That first barrel is still perfectly browned 40 years later. The gun (same as yours) has been restocked and is beautiful. Just stay with it. It ain't an instant thing and try the Birchwood Casey degreaser, but windex.

 

[stephenprops1]

This project is still ongoing! A late deer hunting season took up a chunk of time in January and work has been particularly grueling over the past few weeks, but I've been (slowly) working on cold-blueing (browning?) the barrel and I just have no damn idea if I'm doing it right or screwing it up royally.

After using Evaporust and steel wool on the barrel, I still had some funky spots left, so I took a drill-powered wire wheel and got the barrel looking fairly good - to my untrained eye. There were areas that were still darker than others, but it looked like an aspect of the metal versus anything else.

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I decided to go with Wakhon Bay Tru-Brown bluing, simply because the idea of apply and forget appealed to me, knowing that my schedule was going to be crazy.

The first couple of applications -- nothing really happened. I followed a video that recommended wiping with windex before and after. Well, that seemed to wipe everything off - after two applications, nothing much seemed to be happening to the color of the barrel, so I switched to using 0000 steel wool - no Windex. That helped a bit, I started seeing the barrel darken, but it didn't seem to really darken all that much.

Then, I stopped with really "sanding" the barrel and just lightly rubbing the excess rust away. Now it's getting darker... but not in uniform ways!

I don't know if I really screwing up the barrel or this is from the metal having corroded or what... I've since switched to wiping off the excess rust with a bit of denim from cut up jeans. I'll try another application or two more, and then call it ... whatever it's going to be.

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The good news is that the brass cleaned up nicely with a bit of Brasso and elbow grease. I don't mind that there is some spotting on metal from having sat for a couple of decades in bad conditions - I like my older firearms to have some character to them.

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If I've made a mess of the barrel, well, it was a learning experience and I'm OK with that - having a non-uniformed blued barrel will definitely give it character and be a visual reminder that learning can be difficult!

Once I get the barrel complete with the browning, then I'm moving on to the stock. I think I'm going to strip and restain with a dark stain - I like the visual in my head. Maybe a dark cherry. We'll see what appeals to me at the hardware store.

That's my progress. In my mind, I'm hoping to have this done so I can shoot it in latter April/early May. We'll see!

Thanks for reading along. Let me know how badly I've screwed up the barrel.

One thing I have learned in my bluing and browning gun barrels is if you screw it up just strip the barrel and start over. Chalk it up as part of the learning curve.