Barrel Browning

[Bubber]

I have a Traditions Hawken and am about to start a pistol kit. The Blueing on the rifle looks absolutly terrible compared the wonderfull brown of my dad's kentucky Long rifles. There is no way I am going to blue the barrel of that pistol and sometime in the future am wanting to brown my Hawken.

The Question. Do I pony up the time and money to slow rust brown it or do I chance it with that Birchwood Casey Plum Brown? I think I already know the answer but wanted opinions on someone who has more knowlege than I.

[quickdtoo]

LMF has always done great for me. 

Tim

http://www.laurelmountainforge.com/barrel_brown_inst.htm

[Buckskins & Black Powder]

for the pistol barrel i think the birchwood casey plum brown will be just fine.  For rifle barrels it sucks as its hard to keep the tempature equal all through out the barrel.  It leaves streaks.

For rifles, Laurn Mountain forge  Barrel brown and degreaser is the best to use but it is time consuming and a learning point.

[dud]

i browned a lot of guns,smokepoles and centerfires.laurel mountain gives the best results.everything is in the prep.

[necchi]

[quote ] Do I pony up the time and money to slow rust brown it, [/quote]

 It really doesn't take that much time,,a week, maybe ten days. quicks link to the LMF page gives ya all the direction ya need. When they start talking about moisture and a tent an stuff, well I always just called it a "sweat box". All I do is get a carboard box,, cut a few more layers of cardboard to fit on the bottom, then take a piece of two-by under the tang end and a dowel down the oiled barrel out the end of the box,,make the inside of the box really wet,,aka: sloppin wet put a cup r two of water in there slosh it around. If the box collapses because it's two wet,,well then take that as a lesson and git another box.  Wait 24 hours,,but most folks can't, then follow directions.
 If you oil the bore and plug it like the directions say, you can't mess up rust browning. If ya don't like what's happening,, just sand it off and start again.
I always scrub the finished product with a bakingsoda paste and rinse well,,dry and oil heavily to ensure all the rust starter acids are removed.
 Try the "rust", it's easy,,,

 

[Bubber]

That is what I thought. I have no aversion to taking the time to do it and the effort is not really an issue. Frankly doing it multiple times would still be better than watching tv every evening.
Thanks for the recomendation of the Laural Mountain, I will look into it.

[necchi]

[quote ]Frankly doing it multiple times would still be better than watching tv every evening.[/quote]
  I don't know,watching a barrel rust is about as much fun as watching grass grow
Just give it a little water when it looks dry, and before ya know it, it's time ta mow

[coyotejoe]

I also vote for LMF brown & degreaser. Do follow the directions and be patient. For the first few day you may think it isn't working, but keep at it. One day you'll start to see some results, then  another day or two and it will look great.

[DennyRoark]

I have a question about re-browning.  How do you remove the old stuff?  After refinishing the stock, Now I need to do the barrel.  No idea what they used on it, but it looks more like a painted on finish than a nice cold slow browned one.  I've never seen it before, but I'd bet it was Birchwood-Casey.  Also the under rib and tang were never done so I need to get it all to match.  Really hoping I don't have to draw file the barrel, but if thats what it takes, then...
Denny

[necchi]

"Naval Jelly" rust remover will strip the blueing/rust right off..Wear rubber gloves, and go after it with steel wool.
Ya might have a little trouble with that under rib, cause I think it's some kind of light weight composite metal and not Iron like the barrel.
There was a thread a year back or so about "stripping" a barrel, maybe look back and find that'n.