Traditioional Browning Methods?
- Thread starter chad1043
- Start date
481. To Brown Gun Barrels
After the Barrel is finished, to give it a brown colour, it is to be rubbed over with aquafortis {ed. nitric acid} or spirit of salt diluted with water, and then be laid by for a week or more, till a complete coat of rust is formed. A little oil is to then be applied, and the surface being rubbed dry, it is to be polished by means of a hard brush and a little bee's wax.
482. To keep arms and polished metal from rust
Dissolve one ounce of camphor into two pounds of hog's lard, observing to take off the scum; then mix as much black lead as will give the mixture an iron colour. Fire arms &c. rubbed over with this mixture, and with it on for twenty-four hours, and then dried with a linen cloth, will keep clean for many months.
With the older method, the metal was stripped, and then a cotton swab was used to paint the barrel and other metal parts with the browning solution. ... The recipe from the Science of Gunnery, punblished in 1841, follows:
1 oz Muriate Tincure of Steel {ed. Ferrous Chloride}
1 oz Spirits of Wine {ed. Ethyl Alcohol}
1/4 ox Muriate of Mercury {ed. Mercuric chloride or corrosive sublimate}
1/4 oz Strong Nitric Acid
1/8 oz Blue Stone {ed. Copper Sulfate}
1 qt. Water
After the oil and grease has been removed from the barrels by lime, the mixture is laid on lightly with a sponge every two hours and scratched off with a wire brush every morning until the barrels are dark enough, and then the acid is destroyed by pouring boiling water on the barrels and continuing to rub them until they are nearly cool.
