Finish on cast parts?

[BillinOregon]

My Tulle kit from Pecatonica is now at hand. Furniture is steel castings. What would be the best way to finish these parts and leave an authentic-looking surface for an early 18th-century fusil? Also, does one polish the parts of the lock itself, or leave as cast? Lock is na L&R.
Many thanks in advance.

 

[Norskie]

You'll want to at least file off the flashings and mold marks. After that, I've found crocus cloth to be a good way to go for trigger guards and such. The originals were mostly forged and filed, and the ones I've seen looked like they were never highly polished. (Of course the next one I look at will have been polished to death!)
Is your L&R lock a kit or an assembled lock? Either way, polishing the internals for function is a good idea, but your choice of finish, whether blued, browned or white, will determine how much you want to polish the outside parts.
Moose

 

[BillinOregon]

Thanks Moose. The L&R is a finished lock, but of course parts of it will need polishing, including the pan.

 

[tg]

The originals had furniture that was ploished to one degree or another some gun orders called for highly polished or finished parts, you can clean these up and sand or wool them, then use naval jelly or whatever you use on the barrel to give a patina if that is the look you want.

 

[BillinOregon]

TG: Good point. Wonder how they polished in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Water or foot-powered fabric wheels with pumice or clay?

 

[WRussell]

Wood, with open pores, oil + grit plus elbow grease was used also. And don't forget burnishing. Take a nice shiney piece of hard steel and start rubbing.

Here's a casting from RifleShoppe that I hit with a burnisher.

 

[tg]

There have been some threads on original metal polishing/burnishing methods but I am drawing a blank right now, seems like it was some kind of abrasive with a fixative/carrier of some sort sand paper was around but probably not common, one can file down to a point but then something else would probably come into use, and this would have been iron in the past which may work down easier than steel maybe Mr. Brooks or the Dutchman will give some thoughts on this.

 

[Spot1540553049]

Whitesmithing as polishing metal in the 18th century was called is a lost art in todays world of mechanized polishing wheels and belts. The smiths of that day polished using sand or a polishing media on a leather pad and rubbed by hand to obtain a finish. Remember that the origional barrels were usually of welded up iron and the octogon flats were made by draw filing. Very labor intensive. I'd advise anyone to get an apprentice for this type of grunt work just as they sdid at the time.
as usual,
Spot.

 

[Bri in Chi]

Whatever you do, don't use a power buffing wheel. Do it by hand with abrasives. Very fine grits of abrasive paper are available at auto supply stores in the painting department.

 

[rich pierce]

I use powdered abrasives to polish. Pumice on a flat piece of hardwood works great for many applications and is a period method of polishing.

 

[ricklandes]

Mica on a piece of leather is an excellent final polish. I built a 1860 6 pounder cannon some years back and used it as the finish medium...it worked great on the mild steel hot roll I used in the project.