doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Birchwood-Casey browning solution?

This may or may not have been done to death... if so I apologise.

I've a couple of old damascus barrelled guns I'd like to renovate soon. I'll be doing it myself, as the guns aren't worth the expense of professional help, but I think I'd also learn a lot and gain a lot of satisfaction from the process. Part of that will be re-browning the quite faded, blotchy, scratched damascus barrels. About the only chemical soultion I can find locally is the birchwood-casey one, but I'm not sure if this will have the desired effect of bringing out the damascus patterns, and I'm not sure the tried and true solutions available elsewhere such as the UK can go through the mail. Does anyone else know or have experience? Or will I have to get some recipes out of Angier etc and talk to a chemistry guru about mixing something up for me?
Thanks.

I have not tried it yet - but there was no issue having Dyson's Damascus Barrel Browning solution mailed to the USA from the UK


http://www.peterdyson.co.uk/acatalog/METALWORKING_PRODUCTS.html


also if you watch ebay you may be able to find the Double Gun Journal volume eight issues 2 and 3 - they contained the late Oscar Gaddy's detailed articles on refinnshing damascus barrels

I do a fair amount of Barrel browning using various solutions, including Dysons. I have tried the Birchwood Casey solution and it is terrible for our purposes in my opinion.It may be ok for a muzzleloading steel barrel just to make it brown, but for damascus and twist bbls it is not suitable.

Cadet,
The best commercial solution is the Mark Lee solution. I believe you can buy it from Brownells.I have had great results with it on twist and 2 and 3 bar damascus.
Brownells site http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/cid=11270/Products/Blackening-Browning

Thanks for your help, all.
The Brownells / Mark Lee may be very good, but it "Cannot ship outside Continental United States. Ship UPS Ground only within U.S."
Dysons have just got back to me saying they can send via surface mail.
I think I have the Gaddy articles at home, too.
Does anyone have any idea how much I'd need for 3-4 barrel sets? 200ml bottle enough?

Dysons is not as strong as Lees solution. Use it full strength
as it is much slower, I believe it is the old Greener formula
diluted

I have had good results with Mountain Forge "Barrel Brown and Degreaser"
So easy to use and comes out a nice colour.

Mountain Forge "Barrel Brown and Degreaser"
Can be sent via track of the wolf to New Zealand,so it should not be a problem to you either I would think.

Track of the Wolf sent me mine by surface mail USPS to me in Canada, with no problem.