New(?) method to finish barrels and other steel parts

[oldracer]

When I was working on my latest project, a collection of parts from Pecatonica River to build up a 45 caliber muzzle loading slug gun I was looking at what to use on the barrel, trigger plate, tang and lock plate. I was debating making a hot type blue tank (lots of work), cold blue (not real pretty), cold browning (same) and a semi flat black that was done on a rifle I bought from Roger Johnson a couple years ago. The black was at the top of my list but I did not want to send the pieces off so I started looking around locally and on the web. I found a local company that does metal work and has a finish that works like rust blue and comes in several colors. After the color is completed a semi gloss clear is sprayed on to lock the finish. So I bought the finish setup and after a week of sanding and polishing the barrel I cleaned it well and applied the black color. I brushed it on, let it sit for a couple minutes and then rinsed it off. The neutralizer was applied and let sit for a couple minutes and then washed off. The barrel was then coated with the semi gloss clear applied with a miniature air brush and it dried in a minute. The clear fumes are strong so I used a mask which helped a lot. After a day of so, the color became similar to a case hardening sort of color with a little red/brown/black through out and has remained the same now for a month. I think this is due to the steel alloy used in gun barrels?

On a test piece of steel I tried my various cleaners and oils and nothing affected it at all. The only way to get it off was to actually sand it with paper or steel wool! I think it will last okay but we'll see.

Here is a link to the finish website for anyone interested. http://metalfinishesplus.com/

[johnson1942]

thanks, will check it out.