No.3 Traditions St.Louis Hawken Build Complete

Built this one for a friend of mine over the winter. Just went slow, enjoyed and took my time. I installed actual traditional sights ( not the plastic factory stuff ) a new Hotshot nipple & flash cup. Fully bedded the barrel and tang. She is rock solid!

The stock has a 600 grit finish, 10 coats of genuine oil, light faux maple stripes. All steel was slow rust browned. Brass was buffed back with a 800 grit scuffing pad and will be allowed to age naturally.

A hickory ramrod was also added to replace the factory derlin ramrod.

For the stripes, I used laurel mountain forge walnut stain and used a very thin paint brush and did each stripe with about 4 to 6 coats. Once everything was dry, I gently buffed the stock with 0000 steel wool to help wash out the stripes so it looked more natural.

For barrel browning, Laural mountain forge browning solution. I first prep the barrels with 220 grit, wipe the barrel down with denatured alcohol or MEK, wipe on a nice wet coat ( avoid runs ) Heat up the bathroom to around 80* and turn the shower on to build up humidity. Place the barrel at least 2 feet off the bathroom floor ( where the cold air is trapped ) Once the mirror has a nice light fog on it, I turn the shower off, close the bathroom door and walk away for a hour hours before turning the shower on again. Some folks take the barrel finish up to 320 grit, but because I like a thicker rust coating, I prefer to take it to just 220 grit.

I did a write up on my blog about this, so there is a little more info here on browning a barrel. Normally I use my browning cabinet but because its so cold out, it just doesn't build up the humidity that's needed.
https://buckskinsbp.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-helpers-guideto-building-kit-guns.html

This one IMO was probably the best yet when it comes to faux striping. This SOB took me close to 6 hours to complete the striping.