Blueing questions?

[StarnesRowan]

I am wondering if there is any historical accuracy of bluing locks. Also what is the best way to charcoal blue a barrel

 

[kyron4]

Not sure, but my advice is do what you like; blued, browned, case colored , in the white, all look correct to me. I like LMF browning solution for rust bluing.

 

[rchas]

My understanding of charcoal bluing is that the barrel has to be buried in charcoal and heated to about 800 to 100 degrees. Mark Elliot has a page on his website about it: Charcoal Blueing a Barrel - Mark Elliott

I'm not sure I'm brave enough at this point to give it a try!

The Journal of Historical Armsmaking Technology Volume 5 has a chapter on the process. It says that until the Colonial Williamsburg shop perfected their charcoal blue process, they used rust blue as it was the closest in appearance to a charcoal blue...So that is what I do.