Browning my rifle

[mooman76]

Or adventures in browning. I finally started browning the barrel of my rifle. I was heating it with a propane torch and either I loosened the nozzle
By mistake or it didn’t get a good seal. Anyway flames started around the whole top of the propane bottle. I threw it down, still burning(in the garage) and then kicked it to the driveway. I thought oh **** my car but luckily it didn’t roll under the car. I’m looking around for something to smoother it and the only thing around was a pile of rags. Threw them on their but still burning. I pick up the rags before they catch fire and kick it to the side of the drive. Thinking about just letting it burn but worried the bottle will explode ad it would burn for quite awhile. So I pick up the rags again but this time I put them over the flames and hold them there tight to smoother it. Fortunately that worked. After that I went into the house, checked pants, everything ok. Then I went to HD to get new torch. New one is much better and has a trigger start which is nice.

Brown so far isn’t where I want it. Most looks good but has a couple streaks where it didn’t brown much. That’s the bad thing about doing it this way. Hard to get the heat even. I’ll just put on a few more coats and hope it finally does the job. Some people have no problems doing it this way and some come out like mine. I did a pistol in the oven and it came out great. End of story.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

I'm sure your neighbors got a kick out of seeing that! :haha: I plum browned my barrel (42") bits at a time. Kind of a pain and it took a few tries but it is doable.

 

[bpd303]

You know we will expect a video of that "oh shuckey darn" moment. :grin:
If you are using Plum Brown, additional applications will even it out.

 

[wulf]

A while back I bought a bottle of Caseys Plumb
brown....I never liked the idea of heating the bbl.
I figured if I ever wanted to brown a bbl I would
first let sit outside in the sun for a while. My
tools used to get so hot I could hardly touch them.
So, I decided to brown a bbl and painted it with
Caseys and hung it in my sweat box I made years back
two days later I had a perfectly browned bbl. No
sweat. I oiled it and reinstalled it on the stock.
And I didn't have to pre-heat it....Caseys does work without the heat....
Wulf

 

[mooman76]

Wish I had known that sooner. I procrastinated about doing it. I've done it before and it's not exactly fun but not that bad either. I just feel bad because the original finish was real good and I accidentally messed it up.

 

[mooman76]

That would have been good if I had a video but the wife would have had a fit is an understatement.

 

[mooman76]

One more session did the trick. New torch was a little smaller so it didn't put out as much heat. I just had to spend a little more time heating it up. I didn't quite get it to 275 but close enough. I used my sons electronic temperature reader. Over all I am happy with the finished job. I just need to oil it a little more put it back together. And I did it all without burning my garage down! :haha:

 

[tenngun]

God created cold brown for a reason. If you don't want to mailorder the stuff mustard works.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

No need for an electric temp reader, if the barrel sizzles water or the spit off a finger, it is hot enough.

 

[mooman76]

I really thought about the cold brown but with the low humidity here(around 10%) I thought it wouldn't work so great and I didn't want to build a humidity box to keep it in. Maybe next time I do one though.

MD I know I didn't need a temp gauge, last couple times I didn't use one but since my son had one handy, I thought why not.

 

[Zonie]

You mention in the first post,
"Some people have no problems doing it this way and some come out like mine...."

I have yet to hear of anyone not having some problems using Birchwood Casey Plum Brown on large surfaces like a rifle barrel.

That's why I gave up using it for big parts.
(It works fine for small parts like lockplates and buttplates).

Anyway, wash off the surface and apply a few more coats to the streaked areas. That won't totally eliminate them but not all is lost.

After you get to the point where you say, "Enough all ready!", apply a light coat of oil like 3 in 1 and sit the barrel aside.
The oil plus a bit of aging will even out the look and cause the whole thing to turn a little darker colored.

When you build your next gun and you decide to use a cold browning process, you don't need a dedicated browning box if you have two things.

1. A vaporizer like the kind you use in a bedroom to treat a cold or runny nose.

2. A small closet that you can remove whatever's in it for a day or so.

Hang the barrel from the cloths rod and fill the vaporizer with water.

You will have to experiment a little with it and you don't want to just turn on the vaporizer and leave it running.
Just run it for about 10 minutes and shut it off.

That will bring the humidity in the closet up to a point that things should start to work.

Like I said, you may have to experiment with it a bit. It may only take 3-5 minutes of running.

You don't want the humidity to be 100 percent and you definitely don't want the barrel to look wet.

Something like 70-85 percent should work.

 

[M. De Land]

Why beat your head against the wall?
Use LMF browning solution and you will get a better more durable finish without any heat.

 

[Billnpatti]

Sounds like you had a fun time for a short while. I have used Birchgwood-Casey's Plum Brown on small pieces with grat results. I haved tried it on a full length barrel only once and had terrible results because I couldn't get the barrel evenly heated. I switched to Laurel Montain Forge cold browning solution and got good results. After that one experience, I have used only Laurel Mountain Forge on my barrels. It takes some time and several coats to get a good brown using LMF but when you stick with it and watch it carefully you will end up with a very nice and durable brown.

It is my experience that due to the low humidity wheere I live, I had to make a simple humidity box in order to get a good brown with LMF. All it is is a piece of 4" PVC pipe stood on end. Put a plug on the bottom so it will hold an inch or so of water. Coat your barrel with LMF and hang it in the PVC pipe over night. Just smooth it on, don't rub back and forth or it will not work properly. If you get a coppery sheen, it is time to wipe it off and re-coat it using long even strokes. The first coat takes longer to work than the subsequent coats. When it has been in the pipe over night, card it with something like a piece of burlap and apply another coat and return it to the PVC pipe. The first coat will not result in much rust and it will not likely be even. The second coat will start to give a more even coat of rust. Once you have a coat of rust all over the barrel, it will start to react pretty rapidly with the LMF solution. Once you have a coat of rust all over your barrel, you will have to watch your barrel carefully so that the LMF doesn't react too quickly and get away from you. If you let it get away from you, you may start to have light pitting on the surface of your barrel. You want to avoid that by checking your barrel about every 4 hours to see how it is coming along. Every time you find it has gotten a nice light even coat of rust, you will want to card it, wash it under running water, dry it and apply another coat of LMF. Using LMF is not at all hard but it does require a bit of careful attention. The final result is well worth the effort.

 

[mooman76]

I will try LMF next time. My first time using Plum brown was on a pistol and I was able to use an oven. It was fairly easy and came out great.

I actually though to my self, why couldn't I use a vaporizer? I will probably give that a try but hopefully next time I won't be here any more.

 

[Rifleman1776]

God created cold brown for a reason.

:thumbsup: Absolutely.
There used to be many cottage industry products in this ml game. I haven't browned in years but used one of those home brewed products. Easy to use cold. I kept barrel in the bathroom between applications as that is usually the most humid room in the house.

 

[inlikeflint]

I used laurel mountain forge browning solution to brown my short fusil. The barrel went into the shower stall while not in use and the rest of the small parts went in a toaster oven set at 150 degrees with a pan of water in bottom. Came out nice in both cases but the shower stall took days compared to 8 hours in oven. john