[huli]

I know i read this process in this forum but cant find it. Will someone post it again,please, I have a barrel i want to bake:confused: Thank You

[Ferret]

Check out the 'experiment with curing and rust' (http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=190512) I am doing at the moment.

Also, check out the sticky by Gatofeo here (http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=65820)

What I did was give the NEW revolver a real good scrub with soap and water (I am finding liquid HE laundry detergent is excellent), you can also use brake or carb cleaner although this is nasty stuff. This will get all the oils out. New guns usually get slathered with oil from the factory.
Next I heated the oven to 200 deg F and put the disassembled metal parts in there on a baking tray (oven door slightly open to let the steam out, if you have a downdraught oven, this is perfect).
DONT put the wood in there.
I left the pieces in for an hour and then used a cleaning rod and patches soaked in melted crisco to oil up all the parts. Pay special attention to the barrel and chambers. Let this cool down and wipe off any excess.
After a week (you could just wait a day), I placed all the parts in the oven again (WITHOUT the soapy water clean) and baked them at 200 for another hour. I noticed that I didnt get much crisco puddling out of the metal. Take them all out and re-smother with melted crisco again whilst the metal is hot.
NOTE: hot metal is bad for naked hands. Use oven gloves that you dont mind getting all greased up.

--Editted to remove superfluous comments--

Also note, that if you clean the metal with hot soapy water after you 'season' it, it will remove most of the oils/greases.

Hope this helps.

[gmatov]

Ferret,

You sure as hell misunderstood me.

I was being a little sarcastis with the baking pan full of grease.

If I said dip it in your deep fryer, would you also attribute that to me? Get it to 450 degrees, open the "pores" even more, suck up even more grease? Not gonna happen.

Steel will take a surface lube, you will NOT penetrate the "pores" with lube, and "season" the barrel.

MOST shooters strip and clean their pistols with pretty damned hot water. Hot enough that they can still slather their lube over the parts and get them well lubed.

IRON, as in frying pans, and Dutch Ovens, do not open their pores enough to leak oil or water, when heated, why do you think a steel barrell would?

Quit BSing the people here with your "theories". Those, in particular, are bogus.

I realize you may have read these at other sites, where they swear to it, but, in actuality, 'simpossible.

Cheers,

George

[Ferret]

George, again thanks for your comments. I have editted my previous post and taken out all references to your name.

Metal expands when it is heated. FACT
Cast metal has pores. FACT
People have been 'seasoning' metal (pans, etc) for a LONG time. Methinks that they must have some ideas there.

As to Quit BSing the people here with your "theories". Those, in particular, are bogus... there has been one person disagree with this experiment.. you. There have also been others on here who are helping me with it, or pushing me to continue it. So, right or wrong, I plan to continue and find out for myself.

And yes, I may have read articles about seasoning metals. I am not blindly following what other people have said but actually trying it out myself to see what happens. If I find that 'seasoning' works, then I will have proved to myself that all those multitude of articles actually have some fact behind them, and I am more than happy to share my results. At least I am trying it myself. If others wish to, thats up to them, but i am being positive about all this and not just blindly following or denying.

Thanks..

[sundance44s]

Rifle barrels are a little hard to get in the oven , but when seasoning them lots of bore butter to start the day .. and the heat from shooting it will do the trick on a good seasoning ... B/P gets hot quick with the heavy loads . (just hold the soap on yer cleaning )

[Low Key]

http://www.kitchenemporium.com/info/castiron.html

Here's a link I found to instructions on seasoning a cast iron skillet. The same priciple should hold true for a steel revolver. You're filling in the small imperfections in the surface of the metal and baking the grease to a hard coating which protects the surface from water and air contact and also reduces friction, so stuff sticks to it less.

Yes, metal does have "pores" but the molecular structure of any metal is not an open lattice structure that will absorb any great quantity of a liquid. Any penetration into the metal surface only extends on the order of micrometers, but filing in these small imperfections goes a long way towards a "non-stick" surface.

I think you're on the right track by seasoning your gun and not washing in hot soapy water after every shoot. You may have to re-season every once in awhile, but it shouldn't be a pain in the butt to accomplish now that you have done the initial seasoning.