I know that the barrels were originally rust blued and that's why I considered just boiling them to reconvert the ferric oxide back to ferro-ferric oxide. I wonder if purists would even consider that a refinish since all I would be doing is converting the original black oxide back to black again by the boiling. I do think that I'd need to etch them in ferric chloride solution after carding to bring out the twist pattern because the patina is darker on the barrels than it is on the frame, sideplates, and other case hardened parts.
But the big problem that remains is how to remove the patina from the case hardened surfaces without removing any colors that are still hiding underneath. If Tony was still with us, I might ask him to case color some polished pieces of mild steel so I could allow them to become stained with light rusting, and then experiment with ways to remove only the staining.
