Frizzen doesn't want to brown

[Adam in WI]

I'm using Laurel Mountain Forge to brown a colonial. It's mostly going okay, but the frizzen really doesn't seem to want to brown. I understand it's harder stuff, but is there a trick to getting to match the rest of the parts? The barrel and lock plate look really nice.

 

[Robert Losekamp]

Tagged you in an old post that may be of some help to you.

 

[Adam in WI]

Thanks for the response. I guess another way of putting it is that all my other parts took on an almost chocolate color with little effort. The frizzen wants to turn black and splotchy. Do I just let it go and it'll turn dusty red with rust?

 

[Robert Losekamp]

Thanks for the response. I guess another way of putting it is that all my other parts took on an almost chocolate color with little effort. The frizzen wants to turn black and splotchy. Do I just let it go and it'll turn dusty red with rust?

Make sure you scuff it up pretty good with a higher grit than you used on the rest of the lock and give it a thorough cleaning in a solvent bath. Being hardened the surface may not be rough enough for the browning solution to "bite".

I'd let it go in a humidity chamber for a little while and see if that does anything with a few applications to get it to even out. If it's still splotchy in the end it can always be buffed off and case hardened for a bit of color.

I left my lock bright and @FlinterNick case hardened the frizzen for me, I quite like the look even though it doesn't match the other parts.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Assuming you cleaned all of any oil that might have been on the frizzen, just keep carding off the cud and keep adding coats of LMF, the browning should happen over time.

I remember my frizzens did get started a little differently but the LMF worked out fine in the end.

This is where I stopped, I used 3 coats of LMF over 4 or 5 days with rusting and carding in-between coats.

 

[Adam in WI]

Assuming you cleaned all of any oil that might have been on the frizzen, just keep carding off the cud and keep adding coats of LMF, the browning should happen over time.

I remember my frizzens did get started a little differently but the LMF worked out fine in the end.

This is where I stopped, I used 3 coats of LMF over 4 or 5 days with rusting and carding in-between coats.
View attachment 304421

Maybe I'm just carding way too often. Our humidity is in the 40-60% range. I've been carding at no more than 3 hours. The parts are brown, but they're like glossy brown. I'd like it if they were rougher; I just didn't want the stuff to get out of control on me.

 

[wiscoaster]

Make sure you scuff it up pretty good with a higher grit than you used on the rest of the lock and give it a thorough cleaning in a solvent bath. Being hardened the surface may not be rough enough for the browning solution to "bite".
...

Also, if the lock is disassembled, throw the frizzen in the oven and warm it up a bit. 160 degrees or so should speed up the chemical reaction pretty good.

LMF splotches tend to even out with additional applications.

Also letting it set overnight is helpful. After you stopped the reaction by rinsing, of course.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Don't bother browning the frizzen. Modern browning of frizzens and lock plates is not authentic and amateurish. Leave it bright or with temper colors or case colors, or nothing. There is nothing that screams 20th and 21st century more than a LMF, Wahkon Bay, or Plum Brown browned lock.

dave

 

[Adam in WI]

Hi,
Don't bother browning the frizzen. Modern browning of frizzens and lock plates is not authentic and amateurish. Leave it bright or with temper colors or case colors, or nothing. There is nothing that screams 20th and 21st century more than a LMF, Wahkon Bay, or Plum Brown browned lock.

dave

Even if it's left to roughen up like @Eric Krewson 's example above?

 

[FlinterNick]

I'm using Laurel Mountain Forge to brown a colonial. It's mostly going okay, but the frizzen really doesn't seem to want to brown. I understand it's harder stuff, but is there a trick to getting to match the rest of the parts? The barrel and lock plate look really nice.

Personally i would leave the frizzen bright.

I’ve aged frizzens in nitrate and salt baths on restoration projects, but these were not guns meant for shooting, so i didn’t bother to test the spark.

The use of the gun over time will darken the frizzen, you can clean it off with linseed oil and bees wax, this will naturally age the steel. It will be time consuming but will darken it.

Eric Krewson’s example it can be done however, in most of the browned Frizzens I’ve worked on i’ve always suspected that there was a sacrifice in spark quality for rust coloring, the chemical process of browning or rusting with solvents and chemicals such as plum brown may erode or mitigate some of the surface carbon away.

 

[Adam in WI]

Thanks to everyone for the input. The issue here with parts not coloring evenly from one to another made me look at the bigger picture here. Last night I was looking at the barrel and it had an almost candied appearance to it. Kinda like one of those root beer barrel candies we'd get at Halloween.... I hated it. It looked much too manufactured.

While I enjoyed the process, this was not the personality I wanted for this rifle. So, I stripped everything off with blue and rust remover. I'm going to see how I feel about it in a couple days. I don't think I want to go full bright white, but if this dull gray feels acceptable to me I might just leave it at that and let whatever aging happen by itself.

This has also gotten me reconsidering artificially aging the wood with lye. Instead, I may just go to my current favorite Arrow Wood Finish.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I am not a period correct person; I like dark guns and make mine that way to be what I want.

I guess my guns would be an abomination in the thread counter circles but I like them. My guns spend their life in the woods getting beat up by the thick brush, I like the "used" look.

Like I have said before; we all settle into a different niche in this sport, there is room for all of us but some take offence if we don't subscribe to their niche.

 

[Eric Krewson]

You are right about over carding, you only card if you have red rust.

There is an exception to the red rust thing. You may find your rusting keeps going in spite of neutralizing and oiling, I have had it go on for a month or so. You won't have red rust but will have some rust show on what you card with, I use course denim. In this case I just keep carding until the rusting stops completely. As you can see in the picture the barrel looks fine but still needs carding, I think this is about 3 weeks after the last application of LMF and plenty of neutralizing.

 

[wiscoaster]

....

While I enjoyed the process, this was not the personality I wanted for this rifle. ...

I think you're doing the right thing. It's your gun. Finish it the way you are happiest with the end result.

 

[Wncman]

I'm using Laurel Mountain Forge to brown a colonial. It's mostly going okay, but the frizzen really doesn't seem to want to brown. I understand it's harder stuff, but is there a trick to getting to match the rest of the parts? The barrel and lock plate look really nice.

I had the same issue. I scrubbed and cleaned dried etc. I kept applying it and finally said that’s enough. I figure it will brown naturally in time.

I'm using Laurel Mountain Forge to brown a colonial. It's mostly going okay, but the frizzen really doesn't seem to want to brown. I understand it's harder stuff, but is there a trick to getting to match the rest of the parts? The barrel and lock plate look really nice.