Browning or rather Blueing How to

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

so I found a how to a list of ingrediants.

but just where to find the ingrediants? I dont hane any Dragons Blood laying arournd the house this week.


ae there other things that can be used?

"Instructions for Browning Gun Barrels

The following Ingredients:

Nitric Acid 1/2 ounce
Sweet Spirit of 1/2 ditto.
Spirits of Wine 1 ditto.
Blue Vitriol 2 ditto
Tincture of Steel 1 ditto.

are to be mixed together, the vitriol having been previously dissolved in a sufficient quantity of water to make with the other ingredients, one quart of mixture.

Previous to commencing the operation of Browning the Barrel, it is necessary that it be well cleaned from all greasiness and other impurities, and that a plug of wood be put into its muzzle, and the vent well stopped; the mixture is then to be applied with a clean sponge or rag, taking care that every part of the Barrel be covered with the mixture, which must then be exposed to the air for twenty-four hours, after which exposure the Barrel must be rubbed with a hard brush and rag, to remove the oxid from the surface. This operation must be performed a second and a third time (if necessary), by which the Barrel will be made of a perfectly brown colour: it must then be carefully brushed and wiped, and immersed in boiling water, in which a small quantity of alkaline matter has been put, in order that the action of the Acid upon the Barrel may be destroyed, and the impregnation of the water by the Acid neutralized.

The Barrel when taken from the Water must, after being perfectly dry, be rubbed smooth with a burnisher of hard wood, and then heated to about the temperature of boiling water; it then will be ready to receive a varnish made of the following materials;

Spirits of Wine 1 Quart
Dragon's Blood powder 3 Drams
Shellac bruised 1 Ounce

and after the varnish is perfectly dry upon the Barrel it must be rubbed with the burnisher to give it a smooth and glossy appearance.

Upon further research I have found the source of the Dragons Blood Powder.

It ids ground form the root of the KoKo Crater Tree



which grows on the island of Socotra Archipelago





would anyone be going by that area and pop some in the mail to me if you could.

Thanks

Capt Walt

Now, Off to the Oriential Market to purchare a Mortor & Pestal. It never ends!

[bubba.50]

in the dixie gun works catalog they have a chart with the old chemical/ingredient names and the modern equivalent name. i belive it's in the general information section but not positive. luck and have a good'en friend, bubba.

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

I was checking out the nasty chemicals in a little jar of Gun Bluing in Cabelas.

Since I think I may need my lungs and eyes for some furture use, I passed on that mystery bottle.

Have any of you used COKE for Blueing your guns?

Coke", which has citric acid, phosphoric acid, carbonic acid and other things in it for flavor.

maybe add a bit of ground up charcoal powder and it may work.

At around 0.2% (2000ppm) of citric acid in water, a nail actually coat itself gray and ABSOLUTELY NO rust appears.Citric acid is actually termed to be an ANTI-OXIDANT.

[scrapcan]

I have read of black powder builders using urine to create the rust action. I have not done it but a friend says you can brown and blue with it. He said to blue you just boil the parts after carding. He said it took a bunch of coats to get a deep color, but doable.

So just hit the liquor store to stock up on the raw ingredients!

[calkar]

the steel on the exercise equipment in most gyms is very rusted and brown from the sweat of the average overweight american with a very acidic diet. (over processed and fryed foods). So you could sit up in the attic, eat fryed chicken and sweat on the gun. Hey thats better than urinating on it!

[scrapcan]

Calkar,

maybe he could combine the food with tequila and lime! Just have a grand ole time in the attic or shop!

WickedGoodOutdoors,

On a more serious note, have you looked up the hot blue caustic method using stump remover? It is in the gunsmithing or special projects section.

[calkar]

I always did believe though that urine was probably very widely used by the small gunmakers of our past. I havent had a chance to try it yet.

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist....?topic=14626.0


This looks simple

[wgr]

in the dixie gun works catalog they have a chart with the old chemical/ingredient names and the modern equivalent name. i belive it's in the general information section but not positive. luck and have a good'en friend, bubba.

as allways Bubba is right

[halfslow]

This post has a method which uses less hard to find chemicals:
http://www.homegunsmith.com/cgi-bin/...hl=theoldsarge
I have not tried it yet, but it is supposed to produce a rust blue.

[AZ Pete]

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist....?topic=14626.0


This looks simple

It is, but you need very good ventilation. I did a pistol using that method about 40 years ago, it still looks good. Just do a good job of degreasing the metal before you put it in the solution and you should get a nice even, very dark blue/black finish. I used a porcelain turkey roasting pan for a boiler, don't know what might be available for a long gun.

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

I was just reading that if you take Vinigar and salt and mix together wekll ( THink Easter Eggs) and add some copper pennies that the pennies will get bright and shinny.

Now drop in dome steel and the steel will plate with the copper.

Anyone ever trired this?

A Copper SxS Black Powder Muzzloader would be really Cool!


How do they Bronze Baby Shoes? That may be even more durable

[greywuuf]

A Copper SxS Black Powder Muzzloader would be really Cool!

If that means stainless Steel, it aint happening, not without a Nickel strike coating first, I have been trying with varying acid content , substrates and current/ non current electro chemical and thermal means to get a copper plate on some cheap Candy tins for a while..... Nothing sticks.

[Shooter6br]

Son tried "backyard blacing" with not much more than drain cleaner and a heat source. This produces a black finish like the Germans used at end of WWII. See post here or see link Wickedoutdoors listed. With cautions listed( do outdoors ) it is fool proof. You dont need to add anything exotic like "eye of newt"

[gnoahhh]

Bear in mind that many guns 150+ years ago weren't blued or browned at all, but left bright. The brown patina accrued by most of them fools people today into thinking they were browned.

[TCLouis]

Shooter6BR

How about some details on the son's project?

[Rangefinder]

I was just reading that if you take Vinigar and salt and mix together wekll ( THink Easter Eggs) and add some copper pennies that the pennies will get bright and shinny.

Now drop in dome steel and the steel will plate with the copper.

Anyone ever trired this?

A Copper SxS Black Powder Muzzloader would be really Cool!

I played with copper-plating boolits for a while. Copper Sulfate disolved in hot distilled water was the plating bath, a battery charger on slow trickle-charge was the electricity. Got some good results, just too much a pain to deal with. HOWEVER, in conjunction with your question, I found out by accident that you do NOT need any electric current to plate a nice copper shine on steel (excluding stainless of course). I stirred my concoction with a big spike one day for lack of the plastic stir rod being in reach. Low and behold, it came out really nice and shiny copper after just a couple minutes of stirring. If you're looking to play with this, 15-20 bucks at the hardware store for septic root killer will get you about 2# of copper sulfate crystals--enough to plate quite a few ML's...

[nanuk]

Rangefinder: copper sulfate = BlueStone????

[Linstrum]

Copper sulfate = CuSO4 = blue stone = blue vitriol. The only commonly used names nowadays are CuSO4 and copper sulfate, all the other names are long, long ago obsolete from the days of ancient alchemy and early chemistry. Unfortunately, the text of the recipes using it (and other things with seemingly strange names) have survived for centuries and we run across them because the recipes using them are still valid even though the names are not.

rl 1020

[lavenatti]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019TZKXS/...SIN=B0019TZKXS

Here's a link to buy some dragons blood on Amazon.