Baker Rifle Ram rod - to brown or not to brown

[Larks]

It's a TRS Baker Rifle steel ram rod - would they have been browned originally by the manufacturer in the period?

I’m thinking of browning it with the understanding that the barrels were browned (or blued) to protect them from rust so am “assuming” that the rods would have been also but that in photos of original ones the finish has been long ago eroded.

I’ve used Birchwood Casey Plumb Brown on the barrel, for want of any other readily available product where I am. The finish has turned out quite OK, though not really perfect.

 

[FlinterNick]

Ramrods were not browned, and originals with a dark color had developed a patina on them over time from use, iron tends to age with a nice patina.

I wouldn’t brown the rod, what you can do is heat the rod with some linseed oil and bees wax on it, this will darken the steel to make it appear aged.

Otherwise, i think leaving ramrods in brightly polished is a best practice, keeping them from rushing is easy too.

 

[Larks]

Thankyou Nick, that sounds like a great way to go

 

[Larks]

Not sure that this is entirely what Nick had in mind but I ended up blueing my ramrod and tools in my gas forge and used the forge paste that I use when making tools, hinges and other things in my forge - a mix of beeswax, mineral turpentine and linseed oil .

It only took a very quick heat cycle in the forge to get the rod up to blue and I wanted to be very careful not to overheat it so I can’t say the colour is perfectly uniform along the length of the rod but I like the look of it, so I did the same to the tools (though using a torch rather than forge for a more controlled heat).

 

[FlinterNick]

Not sure that this is entirely what Nick had in mind but I ended up blueing my ramrod and tools in my gas forge and used the forge paste that I use when making tools, hinges and other things in my forge - a mix of beeswax, mineral turpentine and linseed oil .

It only took a very quick heat cycle in the forge to get the rod up to blue and I wanted to be very careful not to overheat it so I can’t say the colour is perfectly uniform along the length of the rod but I like the look of it, so I did the same to the tools (though using a torch rather than forge for a more controlled heat).

View attachment 235237View attachment 235238

Thats close to what i do, yes. What I do for rods is a place them on an electric hob at around 225 until they hot to touch, then I dip them in a copper pipe filled with linseed oil (closed on one end). The part subsequently turns a blackish blueish color that slowly fades after a few weeks and looks aged. As far as protection, i don’t think it does much.

There are methods of black oxidizing steel parts with transmission fluid quenches and motor oil quenches, this works well for screws and such and patinas the part well. I have blackened triggers with Automatic Transmission Fluid and it work as rather well, you just have to make sure the part is polished well enough or it will chip off.

In my experience, The best way to get a long lasting corrosive protection surface is with a hot / molten salt bath at 500 degrees F, i only have the ability to do this with small parts, but is very nice looking on Parts and barrels. The deep dark blue coloring turns black brown within a few months.