removing Plum Brown

[Hickok]

Well I tryed some Birchwood Casey's "Plum Brown" on my 1860 Colt Pietta after stripping off the bluing by soaking in vinegar. My revolver looks horrible. The steel grip frame, the main frame and hammer look perfect, but the cylinder and barrel look like streaked red hair-dye.

I buffed the parts with fine steel wool and the barrel started to look like it was plated with new shiney copper! Yuk! Apparently there are different metals with different tempers, reacting differently to the "browning."

Will vinegar remove this plum brown finish? I hope!!!

[Cowpox]

Steel hardness may be the problem.  The browning solutions only work well on iron and the softest steel.
    The only way I have found to remove Barrel browning, is to polish it off with fine sandpaper.  I suppose diluted muratic acid would wash it off easily, but would cause slight etching that would have to be polished before refinishing.
    I noticed you used steel wool for this job, and that may have made your finish too smooth for the Plumb Brown to "take".  There are instructions on the label to use no finer sand paper than 350 or 400 for browning.  You might want to try that before giving up on the project

[Hickok]

After a good soaking in vinegar I got the "plum brown" off, but it didn't just dissolve away like the bluing did. Kinda' came off like stripping wood with paint remover. I had to keep taking the parts out of the vinegar about every half hour and rubbing off the finish with paper towels.

I refinished the Colt with Brownell's Dicropan T-4 cold blue and it came out beautiful. This bluing, after rubbing down with fine steel wool, looks alot like charcoal blue, and with just a little buffing, gives the appearance of a gun  with a little holster wear. 

[Cowpox]

Thanks for the tip on the vinegar.  I never would have suspected it would remove blue and browning. 
    As luck would have it, I have a poor browning job on a CVA Squirrel Rifle that needs to be stripped for bluing.  I'll give the vinegar a try.

[Hickok]

Cowpox, it worked on the Birchwood Casey Plum Brown brand, don't know about other types.

[Swampman]

Naval Jelly works perfect.

[buckskin billy]

hey yall just found this site and joined up. i have been involved in shooting black powder for about 26 years and shooting cap and ball revolvers is my favorite pass time.
 i have tinkered around with refinishing some of my cap and ball to make them look like a original would have looked brand new, back in the good ole days.
 i have found that equal parts of muric acid and water will remove a finish with no effort at all. be sure to neaturlize the metal in baking soda right away after using the muric acid, or the acid will etch the metal. i use a shot glass to measure with and do two parts muric acid to two parts water. thats enough to strip a rifle if your not wasteful.
 as another note, steel wool is treated with oil that needs to be removed before you use it to refinish your gun as the oil will contaminate the refinish formula.
 i just soak in alcohol over night and then allow to air dry.
 rust bluing and browning should only be polished to 350 or 400 grit as the new finish won't "stick" to any thing polished finer.

 happy shooting

[planefixr]

great tips, thanks for the info and welcome to the forum.

[mcwoodduck]

I have found out that the "Lead A way" cloth for stainless steel, and Never dull wadding will remove bluing. 
It worked so well on taking a rust spot off of my 20 ga side by side I got to reblue the barrels.

[Hickok]

Buckskin Billy, you probably have hit upon the reason my "browning" job didn't come out right. The oil in the steel wool, and the fact that I polished the metal very smooth and shiny. Thanks for the pointers! 

[Longknife 76]

Buck skin Billy, Ain't it kinda DANGEROUS mixin' those chemicals in yore SHOT GLASS??? I mean whut if'n ya need a snort???HIC....??and snort th' wrong wun?

[buckskin billy]

  that mixture is good for curing hang nails wooping cough and warts as well as removing the finish off a gun