doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Brown or black

On a very worn damascus barrel, is it still clear whether it was originally browned or blacked?
Thanks to this board, I now recognize the difference and know how some are black and others brown. I have 4 other barrel sets, all twist, and 1 is black, 3 brown, but they're all in fairly good condition. The barrels on my new project gun are so worn it is hard to tell they're damascus. Under the forend it seemed more black than brown. This is a Birmingham trade gun made for the US market.
Sorry no pics possible at this time.

FWIW, I have a Brummie from around 1890 with laminated steel barrels, original finish in good shape, and they were/are black.

'Plum' barrels but black & white under forend

Although the Brits were quite fond of brown if your barrels are more black than brown under the forend I would bet they were originally finished in black.

I would be curious to know if most prefer one or the other. On higher quality damascus guns, I'm a sucker for black and white, but on twist barrels, I like both.

Drew,
How does the condition in your picture come about?

Blueing or 'blacking' is controlled oxidation. The pattern ('browning' or black & white) seen is damascus barrels is related to the different rate of oxidation of the iron (rapidly rusting) vs. the steel when exposed to a mild acidic solution. The 'plum' appearance over time is from uncontrolled oxidation, from which the metal underneath the forend is somewhat protected.
I'll let the fellas that actually do this stuff comment further
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfg2hmx7_192fcpp4khn

EverD,
What make and vintage is your shotgun? I have English guns that are Black and some are brown. I have some early
Greeners that are Black and later ones that are Brown. I suspect the person that ordered them specified the color.

Iron rust occurs as either ferrus oxide (red rust), Fe2O3 (a molecule made up of two atoms of iron and three atoms of oxygen), or ferric oxide (black rust), Fe O2 (a molecule made of one atom of iron combined with two atoms of oxygen). Since more oxygen is required for black rust than for red rust, the red will occur more frequently in nature than will the black. Red can be converted to black by boiling in water; the oxygen disolved in the water will combine with the red rust readily at boiling temperature and convert it to black. SOoooo, if you have black anywhere on the barrel, it is a good bet that it was originally black as the black was replaced by red as the original black wore off. Increasing carbon content of steel reduces its rate of rusting (red or black). The varying carbon content of the two steels will ctause differing rust rates and allows the damascus andtwist paterns to be developed.

The gun is labeled only London and Lovell Arms Co. Boston. It has Birmingham proofs, top lever, small hammers, Purdy double underbite. The replica buttplate site has the same buttplate attributed to J.P. Clabrough. I'm guessing it dates to 1890's.

Drew's photo had me a bit confused, as I thought perhaps it was a browned barrel which had turned black under the forend.

I think I'll see about making a boiling tank and try to make it black and white.

Thank you all for the education.