doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com English brushed finish

I see this described a lot on English guns. So after case hardening process do they go through and remove the color? Or what is that process?

I would be interested to hear more on this too. I’ve been interested in how the French gray finishes are done.

I have wondered about that as well.

I suspect that most of those guns (but not all) were sold as color hardened guns and lost their color over the years, due to wear or oxidation, and were then given the “brushed finish” as a way to refresh them. But I do not know if that brushed finish treatment was mechanical or chemical, or perhaps both.

As an Englishman ,I can state quite categorically there is no hard fast rule or process to the so called " English Brushed Finish "It is simply a term to describe the appearance as is " Coin Finish".
It will depend on the state of the action , the person doing it and the desired finish.
Webley & Scott did what was called an emery finish , which was simply cleaning off the colour hardening with fine grade emery cloth .
Others use soft wire brushes on a polishing spindle to remove the vestiges of colour and to even up the overall surface .
Some will polish the action to a shine
Actions have been bead blasted to give a dull overall grey finish , pickled in an acid solution to remove rust and staining before any brushing and/or a combination of both .
Personally I have used all of the above at some time or another dependent on what was desired or needed to give the best outcome or customer request .

Lefusil may chime in on this, as he explained it to me.

Gunman, as usual, is spot on.

Dustin

Complex answer. I was told years ago that Grulla polished off the case color to get their silver finish, which I liked because it wasn't shiny silver. In contrast to that I asked about altering the engraving on a different manufacturer's silver finish gun and was told it was a coating and could not be deepened or altered after finished.

While the case colors have been polished off, the case hardening remains (and some degree of rust resistance), so engraving is not really viable without annealing. The "coating" is that thin layer of hardening that charcoal case coloring produces.