doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Rust browning steel....how taboo

I use steam. Much less water under ribs than boiling. Not saying you can�t get some but much less for me so far. Simple setup. 36� round duct pipe. Fixture to hold barrels slides in pipe. One end sealed and other end removable. Steam generator. Vent on top and return line for condensation on bottom. Thermometer to check temp.

Why worry about getting a little water under the ribs? You're likely to get water in there anyway when you neutralize and rinse your after browning or bluing. Simply heating them to near boiling temperature will quickly turn any water to steam and drive it out. Just don't get them hot enough to melt solder, which typically would be over 360 degrees F. The rib between the barrel and ramrod on my flintlock rifles is screwed on, so rain or water from cleaning can easily get into there, so I always set my cleaned barrels next to the furnace plenum to dry thoroughly before oiling them.

Quite a few barrels have at least one or two small gaps or pinholes in the rib solder joints. The bigger challenge is getting all oil and contaminants out of there prior to doing your browning or bluing rusting cycles so it doesn't creep out and screw things up during the process. This is why many barrels that have been reblued have a small weep hole drilled into the bottom rib.

RARiddle,
Boiling or steam, either one, will turn it black(I thought you wanted brown). Water displacing oil will help remove the water, if any, after the browning is done( it may not get it all).
Mike

I think he was thinking brown as much to prevent water getting under the ribs.

Yes, that was a big part of it. The brown would look pretty unique. I definitely have some things to mill over!