What went wrong with this browning?

[john4645]

Please give me feedback on what I did wrong with this brown. I used the Laurel Mountain stuff. This is 5 or 6 coats. It never got a rust coat on it it just turned this color. And why is it blotchey, like at the muzzle? I followed the directions on the bottle.

 

[Roy]

It has to be humid to really get anything to rust. We just browned up a barrel by sticking it in the bathroom with a humidifier and a space heater to get it to take off.

 

[Swampman]

I believe you overlapped your application strokes. You have to follow the instructions exactly and to the t. You must be very careful not to allow one stroke of wet solution to go over the other. A copper color will result and the process stops working at that point.

 

[john4645]

Can/how do do I start over?

 

[BS]

Use less liquid on your rag, or cotton ball. This will happen from using too much liquid, and too much scrubbing.

More thin coats are better than one heavy application!

 

[George F.]

ditto with that advice, you can NOT go over a recently coated portion with this solution, as swampman stated, a copper coating will be your result. If this happens, you'll have to remove the 'browning' down to the bare metal and start over again. However, it is a very durable finish. I don't remember how many coats I put on exactly, but if I remember corectly, its around 9 or 10( which might seem exsessive to some maybe most readers) good luck......George F.

 

[BS]

Can/how do do I start over?

Emery paper, about 320

 

[Roy]

220 sandpaper :grin:, Make sure to use a sanding block, and even though its a degreaser I like to wipe down the barrel with acetone or white gas to be sure to remove any oils. :thumbsup:

 

[Swampman]

I love LMF browning solution. I have a perfect looking Hawken barrel laying on the floor here that I did with it. On a hot humid Florida day, 3 coats in 24 hours will turn out awesome looking.

 

[Erzulis boat]

I can see the original bluing on the slotted barrel tenon- First, did you remove all the old bluing? Granted, the solution will "go through" old blue, but contaminants abound.

If the blue on the barrel was removed, then possibly the "carding" was incorrect.

If you did "double wipe" the solution, then Swampman hit the nail on the head.

I am currently running a barrel remnant with hardly any humidity (24 to 30 hour cycles) just to get color. The carding is done aggressively, back down to smooth and with a low shine.

After 2 weeks the color is a fantastic purple that appears to be super durable (will test it soon).

You might have just rushed things.

Creating a humid environment is fine to speed things, but if you do not create one, time will do it too. Put the solution on super thin.

To apply the solution, I use a large plastic paper clip (like a potato chip bag clip), put a doubled over cleaning patch in the jaws and brush it on. The patch is so thin and wimpy, you cannot possibly put too much on. It works! I use this "brush" for rust-bluing too, and have never put on too much.

Anyway, this is just my technique. :hmm:

 

[john4645]

The barrel was never blued. What you see there is probably where the lmf did not contact the metal. I draw filed it. applied the lmf. i followed the directions. I live in northern WI so it is dry up here. I hung the barrel over my wood stove with containers of water on top of the stove to create humidity. If I did anything wrong it would probably be to much lmf on my applicator.

 

[Old40Rod]

The great thing about browning is you can start over. I suggest using a rougher sandpaper, maybe 180. "Too smooth" makes it harder to brown in my experience. Ditto on the single wipe. Follow the written instructions to a "T".

Humidity is everything. I have a small bathroom, and hang parts from the shower curtain rod... close the door and blast hot water from the shower to steam the room up good then turn it off. Repeat as necessary. I have never had to run more than about 3 hour cycles, and mine seem to get shorter for later applications.

 

[BlackNet]

I had a very similar problem and made a fairly good size post on this subject, here.
TID #186996

I have several photo's of the process how it turned out and someone was kind enought to post the instructions that was missing from the shipment.

I hope this thread proves valuable to you and others doing this process.

Ed

 

[Swampman]

I use a leather dye daubber like they sell at Tandy.

Browning and bluing can be removed with Naval Jelly in a heart beat.

 

[Vaino]

Looks to me like it needed more humidity and time. In the dry winter months , I use a sweat box and leave the barrel in for 12 hrs. then lightly card, rinse and apply another light coat of LMF. Let it sit for another 12 hrs and card, rinse and apply LMF. From this point I repeat the cycle but only leave it in the sweat box for 4-6 hrs. depending on the amount of rust. Usually 3-4 of these cycles is needed. The {2} 12 hr. periods yield a nice matte surface and the 4-6 hr, periods produce the deep color. In the summer, all is the same except the sweat box isn't needed.I see you live in northern WI. where it's very dry in the wintertime and I live in West Bend, WI. and initially had the same problem you're experiencing......Good luck....Fred

 

[Bolink654]

Mine looked like that on the 2nd coat. More coats got it a bit darker. But my problem with LMF was that I couldnt get it as dark as I wanted... maybe a coca-cola color was as dark as I got? I was goin for semi-smooth, milk chocolate color. I tried a buncha things to get it in a humid area. None of that worked.
Finally, sanded it off, went to 180 grit, tried again. Helped a bit, still wouldnt get like some I've seen on here.
So I tried 3 coats in a row, no carding, 12 hours apart. That did it nicely. HEAVY coats too. I know yall say not too, but thats what worked for me. It actually turned green with the heavy coats and not carding. But after about 6 hours, the green went away.

And I used a Q-tip on my Lyman Plains Pistol barrel. I overlapped each stroke, didnt seem to be a problem for me.

Just experiment with heavier/lighter coats, waiting longer between them, maybe a few without carding between, and finally, maybe a heavier grit.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Sand her down and wipe it clean, go for a fresh start. Try your utmost to do a very sparingly one swipe application, to double apply or rub equals problems.

Here is pic of my el cheapo PVC pipe framed browning damp box made up few years ago, cut and glued it together in less than 1/2 hour. Wet towling in bottom, pull over the visqueen plastic and masking tape to enclose.

 

[chipper]

I had the same problems with the browning process (copper looking barrel using LM) and I had to sand and start over several times. Then It dawned on me. (Colorado is very dry in the winter time) I then took the barrel up to the shower and let the steam hit it. Instantly I had rust. I think I'm going to skip the heavy chemical applications next time and go straight for the rust.
Regards

 

[CARBABY]

BEFORE you start with any kind of sandpaper, emery paper, wet and dry.... check it out and make sure the bonding agent that holds the abrasive doesn't contain Silicon. A bunch of boys ran into that once and went crazy trying to figure out why the browning was going goofy.

 

[CrackStock]

I would wipe it off with a scotch bright pad and then live the gray patina that this will leave. I think that choclate brown is over rated.

CS