Been busy at work (away from home) quite a bit lately, but have made some progress. I'll try to take pictures tomorrow and add them to the post.
I did about 3 or 4 coats of Permalyn Sealer, letting them dry a full day in between.
It then sat for close to a week, and I applied my first coat of Chamber's Traditional Oil finish. I probably did this one a bit light, and probably could have lathered on more sealer on a few parts prior to the Chamber's oil finish.
It sat 24 hours, then I put on the second coat of Chamber's Oil Finish today. It's looking good. I expect I will do at least one more coat of finish, and then rub it back from shiny.
Meanwhile, I've been browning the lock plate in preparation for rust blueing. That has taken ages, with a few mis-steps. Anyway, after umpteen applications of LMF resulting in a brown that was not entirely even, I boiled it in Distilled water for about 6 minutes tonight. Came out a fairly deep black. I've soaked it in oil this evening and will look at it in the sunlight tomorrow. I figure I can always sand it off and start again.
I am beginning to think that my biggest problem with browning is that I am getting the surface too smooth. Combined with low humidity and temperatures around 40-50 degrees it progressed slowly. As an example, I left a coat on for 6 days and it didn't even come close to pitting.
As an anecdote, I just discovered something interesting. My barrel (in the white) was sitting for close to a week in the trough of my workbench and happened to be just above (but probably not in contact with) the cloth that I had used to apply the LMF. There was a section of the barrel about 1.5 inches long that had browned from what I must assume are the vapors from the cloth.
Worst part is, the brown was miles better than the brown I achieved on my lock plate! Nice even tone, good color, not too thick etc etc. Bugger.
Since it was such a small section of brown, on about 4 flats, I rubbed it off with a scuff pad. Broke my heart.
Might just try soaking a barrel length cloth in LMF and leaving it near my barrel!!
I did about 3 or 4 coats of Permalyn Sealer, letting them dry a full day in between.
It then sat for close to a week, and I applied my first coat of Chamber's Traditional Oil finish. I probably did this one a bit light, and probably could have lathered on more sealer on a few parts prior to the Chamber's oil finish.
It sat 24 hours, then I put on the second coat of Chamber's Oil Finish today. It's looking good. I expect I will do at least one more coat of finish, and then rub it back from shiny.
Meanwhile, I've been browning the lock plate in preparation for rust blueing. That has taken ages, with a few mis-steps. Anyway, after umpteen applications of LMF resulting in a brown that was not entirely even, I boiled it in Distilled water for about 6 minutes tonight. Came out a fairly deep black. I've soaked it in oil this evening and will look at it in the sunlight tomorrow. I figure I can always sand it off and start again.
I am beginning to think that my biggest problem with browning is that I am getting the surface too smooth. Combined with low humidity and temperatures around 40-50 degrees it progressed slowly. As an example, I left a coat on for 6 days and it didn't even come close to pitting.
As an anecdote, I just discovered something interesting. My barrel (in the white) was sitting for close to a week in the trough of my workbench and happened to be just above (but probably not in contact with) the cloth that I had used to apply the LMF. There was a section of the barrel about 1.5 inches long that had browned from what I must assume are the vapors from the cloth.
Worst part is, the brown was miles better than the brown I achieved on my lock plate! Nice even tone, good color, not too thick etc etc. Bugger.
Since it was such a small section of brown, on about 4 flats, I rubbed it off with a scuff pad. Broke my heart.
Might just try soaking a barrel length cloth in LMF and leaving it near my barrel!!
