• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

barrel greying?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Kentuckyjed

.45, .50, .62 cal.
MLF Supporter
Joined
Aug 15, 2022
Messages
457
Reaction score
525
Location
Kentucky
Been searching the forum but can't nail down any info. What would be a good way to preserve a barrel giving it the greyed steel or soft steel look and still have some sort of rust proof protection. Just looking for a simple way that I can keep the barrel looking somewhat aged but not blued or browned.
 
Yes , mine looked more galvanized than gray…

There’s lots of info too be found in the search feature about “mustard finish”.👍

This one was done with naval jelly..

4834CF71-7388-4631-98FC-0ECE0AA8C898.jpeg



FYI….

F3F3A502-81F8-4BEA-8415-3BA134BB90DC.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Have to admit I’ve never tried cutting cold blue or Oxphor Blue with water but I know it’s supposed to work well. Clay Smith recommends 50/50 oxphor blue & water for his kits. I would think Jax Black could be water mixed too. Curious if anyone has tried that. And mayonnaise is supposed to work well too.
 
Plug all openings and suspend in a trough of lye water. My uncle used to keep a bucket of it around to clean up the iron skillets he sold at flea markets and it gave them a nice durable grey color.
 
Your thinking is right! Best to see what various chemicals and finishes do on YOUR metal and wood.

Thanks for asking this question. I am about finish metal on an older CVA Mountain Rifle I am rebuilding, and want to try something different.
 
Well the Birchwood Casey Perma Blue 50/50 with tap water worked the best for me. I was going for the not browned, not blued, but more of a raw not shiny steel look. Cleaned the barrel with brake cleaner, dried/wiped down, applied the mix in uniform passes along the length of the barrel, rinsed with tap water, wiped dry and used fine steel wool to buff out to a slight steely look then used Kroil and steel wool on the entire barrel again then wiped clean. Looks good. The mustard took longer and wasn't as reactive as I thought it would be (maybe brand, French's) plus it just made me hungry for one of the old salcissia in a pretzel at Gus's in St. Louis.
Anyway, thanks all for the anecdotes/remedies/et cetera.
 
I searched here for French grey, got tons of info.
I went with phosphoric acid. Several coats over 2 days, looked nice.
Decided I didn’t like some scratches in barrel, did a better job “draw-sanding” it to 320 grit.
Tried cold blue, wipe, dark grey scotch brite with phosphoric, wipe off black then rub more acid on, let sit an hour.
Neutralized with ammonia then an oil bath rubbed in with scotch brite.
Looks just as good as the 2 day job but only took an hour and a half.
B48F01B2-DB47-4FC5-9BC7-CE4ECBBA13CB.jpeg
 
Back
Top