Metal Question

[Ray-Vigo]

I'm curious about "iron" mounted rifles these days. I've seen guns that have a silver-ish finish to the lock and barrel (and if present patchbox), but the best of these guns seem to have a dulled, aged sort of silver finish to them. It seems the work of Herschel House comes to mind on this point. How do you get a finish like that-- it looks like bare metal, but with a dulling to it. Is that a treatment or is it just a sand-down etc?

 

[Xtramad]

30% hydrochloric acid works great to get that dull finish.

 

[Lonstar]

You can get different degrees of shine on steel. From a mirror finish to a dull brushed silver grey finish just by sanding using different grit wet/dry sand paper. Somewhere around 300 grit may give what you are looking for. You can always go the chemical route but I cannot help you there. (my wife wont let me have any) In my experience I start getting a good sheen at about 400 grit. You can also do it with heat. You will take it past the straw and the blue. Once past the blue it will turn grayish color. Keep in mind that it all depends on what type of steel you are working with. On thin pieces look out for warping. I was experimenting with hot bluing and found that a plain (polished) carriage bolt from home Depot will go from grey, to straw to blue and then back to a different shade of grey. Kinda of a shinny flat gray if that makes since. I buffed the shine off with steel wook. It took it down to about what you are talking about. Pretty neat.

 

[Ray-Vigo]

300, not 3000? 300 is pretty coarse stuff, would that not leave gouges and deep scratches too? Or are you using some kind of oil with it?

 

[LRB]

300 grit is pretty fine grit. At 400 grit you start getting some slight amount of image reflection.

 

[Lonstar]

300, not 3000? 300 is pretty coarse stuff, would that not leave gouges and deep scratches too? Or are you using some kind of oil with it?

Wet sanding with water. On steel the scratchers are there but do not show as it would on brass or GS. 3000 grit will give a mirror shine for sure. I would start with about a 300 grit and increase the grit until I had what I was looking for. OR, you can go all the way to a mirror finish and work it back down. I did this with a lock. It was to shinny for my taste so I cut in back to 600 grit and buffed the stew out of it with 000 steel wool. It was still a bit shiny but I can live with it. Birchwood Case makes a product called Metal Black. I have used in on brass for an antique look. It turned it real black. I buffed it out with SW and left some highlights. Came out pretty good. Not sure how it would work on steel. :hmm: I feel some experimenting coming on.

 

[Packdog]

I can't say How Hershel is doing his metal but using Birchwood Casey’s Super Blue and then submerging in Clorox will give you very aggressive rust that when sanded off leaves a slightly pitted and Gray finish.
Super Blue alone will give you a Gray finish if applied and then rubbed back with steel wool or 3M scub pad.
Boiling in Clorox will also give you very aggressive rust that can be sanded back to a gray finish along with lung problems if you don't have good ventilation.