# BROWN gun finishing



## Wheels (Nov 30, 2009)

Can anyone help me find brown gun finishing for an old antique shotgun?  I have looked in several sporting good stores and no success and they could not give me any ideas on where to find it.  any  and all information is greatly appreciated. THANKS


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## Cknerr (Nov 30, 2009)

Mountain Laurel is one of the easier kinds to use. It produces a plum brown color. What is really nice is not having to degrease the metal. Helps to, but not necessary.

Track of the wolf, Brownell's, Midway, Dixie, and many others sell it.

Chris


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## Turkey Comander (Nov 30, 2009)

Browning shotgun barrels is an art....you can't buy it in a bottle. The ones I've had browned were by a guy in Missouri named Buck Hamlin.


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## Cknerr (Nov 30, 2009)

damascus steel is whole differant ball of wax! 

Your right, that bottle stuff is not for what you have. 

Nice looking shotgun.
Chris


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## Turkey Comander (Dec 1, 2009)

Billwheeler said:


> Can anyone help me find brown gun finishing for an old antique shotgun?  I have looked in several sporting good stores and no success and they could not give me any ideas on where to find it.  any  and all information is greatly appreciated. THANKS



His post said "brown gun finish for an old antique shotgun".....I know he didn't specifie barrel material but "brown gun finish" was never used on fluid steel. 

So I took it upon myself to guess his gun as Damascus steel.


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## Doyle (Dec 1, 2009)

You can also do what is called "rust bluing". It involves a tank of boiling distilled water and a quick-rusting agent.   That tecnique was apparantly used long ago by many manufacturers.


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## Wheels (Dec 1, 2009)

*Thanks for the replys for brown gun finishes*

I appreciate  your input. I need to be more specific-- the main frame  and both side plates are what I am interested in refinishing- the barrels are fine . These componets shows the rust  and wear where they were apparently carried. Again THANKS ALL for you input. Comments are always welcome. I continue to learn on ahobby which I love!


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## Turkey Comander (Dec 1, 2009)

Most SxS frames and sideplates were originally color cased, if they are brown looking it's most likely from rust over the years.
What is the make of the gun ?


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## Cknerr (Dec 1, 2009)

Rust bluing (old English is Blackening) won't bring out the Damascus patterns that well. To really get them to be eye popping takes some other chemicals and work. This is one of the biggy items when people ask me to restore or refinish their firearms.

Very differant agendas - restoring or refinishing. Restoring better not get the damascus eye popping. this is one of the big controversies. A correct restoration will not make the damascus stand out as much as it could. Collectors and fanciers of course want the eye popping. It also sells for more....sigh, decisions, desisions.

Doyle, what you are referring to is a form of slow rust blackening. I don't bother with the distilled water. Granted, the minerals in tap water might react with chemicals if you use some to accelerate rusting -I don't use accelerators. Boiling the metal with a fresh coat of carded rust will turn it black. Ferris oxide will be turned into Ferrous Ferric oxide that is black (Hematite). If you want it Browned, then skip the boiling.  You will build up a metal finish that is brown with a tiny hint of red/orange. It won't be plum, that is a modern color and comes from the chemcals. The chemicals are not needed. If you do use accelerators to speed up rusting, you change the ferric oxide to something else with the added chemicals. It makes the metal finish much softer and changes the color (sometimes plum). Not a bad appearing finish though.  

There are several threads on exactly this:
Some pictures of slow rust and other bluing http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=445048
See #18 - explains process and has some background on it  http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=443499

Take care,
Chris


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## EMC-GUN (Dec 1, 2009)

Neat looking Damascus Turkey Commander! Do you shoot the gun at all?


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## Turkey Comander (Dec 1, 2009)

All the time.


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## EMC-GUN (Dec 1, 2009)

AWESOME!! Nice to see the old iron getting used. A lot of folks are afraid of Damascus and don't use their guns. Many more memorable hunts left in a lot of these guns!


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## kevincarden (Dec 2, 2009)

Turkey Comander said:


> Most SxS frames and sideplates were originally color cased, if they are brown looking it's most likely from rust over the years.
> What is the make of the gun ?



the make of the gun is a eclipse hercules double barrell.  it's my uncles gun that good ol mr. bill is fixin up for him.
                             thanks,  kevin


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## Turkey Comander (Dec 9, 2009)

Never heard of an "eclipse hercules"

Might be what's referred to as a Hardware store double. If it is I'd be carefull envesting much money in it as most are cheap Belgium made guns of very low quaility and most likely unsafe to be shooting (with modern ammo for sure).

Here's how barrels are 'browned' 

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfg2hmx7_194gwgwmqdh


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## Wheels (Dec 9, 2009)

Thanks Turkey commander for the great information. I can't find  much information on this gun-- just doing this as a favor for a good friend ,more labor than anything else. Needless to say - I was not the first to work on this one- I just want to get it back as close to original as I can. Thanks again


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