Re-browning my rifle barrel

jspappap · January 23, 2014, 07:31 PM

As I am approaching the completion of my rifles stock, I notice there are bad spots ( dark / light slightly pitted ) on the browned barrel. It came that way. What is the best way to re-do the barrel? Also can I strip the blue from the lock and brown it? I recently saw a flintlock with a beautiful dark brown finish. They told me it was plum brown. Does anybody have any advice on using this? Any pictures you may have would be greatly appreciated. Also the sights appear to be piened in place, can I just push them out with a drift punch. My wife knows I'm dragging my feet because I don't want to screw up the stock when I apply the finish, but I'm going to have to bite the bullet one of these days and finish this rifle.

Thanks to you all for your patience, advice and help

Captchee · January 24, 2014, 07:26 AM

For the lock , you can remove the bluing or in the case of case hardening , polish it out , then brown .
Plumb brown can be used but know that the quality of finish can be just as bad as are slow rust if the surface isn’t prepared properly . IE you can end up with that rough surface like is achieved on a slow rust . A good rust brown should be even and smooth . a lot of times folks think that smoothness is derived from a high polish of a part . Fact is that with a rust brown , there isn’t much need to go past 300 grit .
The smooth polished surface comes from carding off the heavy oxide , leaving only the very fine stain size oxide .
that’s where Plumb brown shines as there isn’t any real need for repeated carding . However I have found it to be not a durable as a slow rust in that over time and use , you can end up with a somewhat blotchy surface .
As to your barrel .
New barrels normally don’t come finished to the point they are ready for rusting or bluing .
that’s where draw filing comes in . draw filing removes not only the tooling marks but also light pitting and gives you an even surface prep to start from .
Again when finishing a barrel you need to consider what treatment your going to use .
When choosing to brown , you can actually polish a barrel to the point it inhibits the formation of rust .
Be it a rust black , blue or brown , its all derived from the formation of iron oxide .
As such again no need to really go past 300 grit .
But if one wishes to use say a niter blue or a blue “cold blue “or brown stain then you want a better finish level . Especially concerning niter or fire blues.

What I would do with your barrel is draw file it back . Then hit it would emery paper on a good sanding block so as to keep the corners of the flats good and sharp . Then do you brown . Be it plum brown or a slow rust

January 23, 2014, 07:31 PM	#1
jspappap Member Join Date: January 20, 2013 Location: Fredericksburg Va. Posts: 90	Re-browning my rifle barrel As I am approaching the completion of my rifles stock, I notice there are bad spots ( dark / light slightly pitted ) on the browned barrel. It came that way. What is the best way to re-do the barrel? Also can I strip the blue from the lock and brown it? I recently saw a flintlock with a beautiful dark brown finish. They told me it was plum brown. Does anybody have any advice on using this? Any pictures you may have would be greatly appreciated. Also the sights appear to be piened in place, can I just push them out with a drift punch. My wife knows I'm dragging my feet because I don't want to screw up the stock when I apply the finish, but I'm going to have to bite the bullet one of these days and finish this rifle. Thanks to you all for your patience, advice and help

January 24, 2014, 07:26 AM	#2
Captchee Senior Member Join Date: April 2, 2013 Posts: 439	For the lock , you can remove the bluing or in the case of case hardening , polish it out , then brown . Plumb brown can be used but know that the quality of finish can be just as bad as are slow rust if the surface isn’t prepared properly . IE you can end up with that rough surface like is achieved on a slow rust . A good rust brown should be even and smooth . a lot of times folks think that smoothness is derived from a high polish of a part . Fact is that with a rust brown , there isn’t much need to go past 300 grit . The smooth polished surface comes from carding off the heavy oxide , leaving only the very fine stain size oxide . that’s where Plumb brown shines as there isn’t any real need for repeated carding . However I have found it to be not a durable as a slow rust in that over time and use , you can end up with a somewhat blotchy surface . As to your barrel . New barrels normally don’t come finished to the point they are ready for rusting or bluing . that’s where draw filing comes in . draw filing removes not only the tooling marks but also light pitting and gives you an even surface prep to start from . Again when finishing a barrel you need to consider what treatment your going to use . When choosing to brown , you can actually polish a barrel to the point it inhibits the formation of rust . Be it a rust black , blue or brown , its all derived from the formation of iron oxide . As such again no need to really go past 300 grit . But if one wishes to use say a niter blue or a blue “cold blue “or brown stain then you want a better finish level . Especially concerning niter or fire blues. What I would do with your barrel is draw file it back . Then hit it would emery paper on a good sanding block so as to keep the corners of the flats good and sharp . Then do you brown . Be it plum brown or a slow rust