A smith I know pretty well would devote an entire week doing nothing but barrel prep. He said by the end of that week his arms were about to fall off from striking barrels. I think he did them in batches of 8. Did excellent work and fantastic polishing all by hand. I think most of what he did was fluid steel barrels. Could be wrong. He found that was the best way to do it, but indeed it was a long wait between batches. He now works for G&H.
No way I could strike barrels and polish for a week straight, my hands, shoulders and back just would not take it. I tend to prep two to four sets of barrels at a time and blue in small batches as well. I constantly have stuff heading out for engraving pick up, that dictates my bluing schedule more than anything else, thankfully my engraver is darn quick which helps keep work flowing.
Stevie, you are such a delicate little flower. I think it would help a lot if you didn't have those weak limp wrists. Actually, based upon what you have posted here in the past, it appears that the hardest part about rust bluing for you is finding someone else as a sub-contractor for the actual prep and bluing work. You have admitted to farming out a lot of the work you find too tedious, like welding, etc.
You have told us that you employed someone named Manito Lara (sp?) to do your rust bluing. And the late Doug Woodin PA24 told me personally that he laughed at you when you asked him to do your rust bluing.
I have closely followed any rust bluing Threads posted here over the years, because I often glean some useful tip or information that I didn't know or might wish to try. I've noticed you made a lot of comments that suggested to me that you were far from an expert on the subject, and probably just parroted what you read or saw in gunsmith school. This one pertaining to etching Damascus barrels was one of my favorites:
Chuck,
we have been using a 14% solution for our dip, immersing the cupon for about 45 seconds. More to follow, hopefully with pics.
Steve
That was your post #76837 from this Thread:
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=77129&page=1As soon as I saw that, it was apparent that you never actually did it, or you would have soon learned how quickly a 14% ferric chloride solution at a 45 second dip (especially in mid 60's temps) would remove your blue. Battle, Chuck, and others noticed too. Chuck had earlier told us he was using about a 10% ferric chloride solution at only 10 seconds, and felt that was a bit too strong.
skb...........jmho, but i think thats a little long on the etch. Especally 14% strength.
Steve,
My air temps are between 50-60F in my garage. What temps is your process being done at?
This last etch (only 10% solution) on only one rust (4th rust) took it back a bit from the picture. I think my etch needs to be weaker with my temps. Also, I think I'll go 2 rusts on this next etch.
Of course, you quickly did some backpedaling. Who was the "we" in that post Stevie? It looked to me like the person who was actually doing the work corrected you and told you he was really etching less than 10 seconds. So 45 seconds was too long??? No shit Sherlock:
I started to reduce the time in the etch....45 seconds was too long. Now dipping less than 10 seconds. Shop temp is around mid 60's. Am I mistaken, I thought the total percentage of ferric chloride was suposed to be 15%, or there abouts? I took my 29% solution obtained from radio shack and cut it 1 to 1 with water, giving me 14.5%. From reading bills post above, it seems he is running about 1 part RS etch to 6 parts water....maybe I'm still too strong. I'm doing a piece of english twist with a brown and white finish now too. Pics when I get a chance.
Steve
You never did post those pics you promised. I wonder why? Don't bother now. Nobody would believe you actually did it after what you wrote. It seemed to me that you might be better off keeping busy just finding people to do your work, and refrain from making posts that reveal a lack of knowledge. As I said, I sometimes learn something from those rust bluing Threads. In that one, I learned that you don't know nearly as much as you'd like us to think. Stick to the Free Advertising, subcontracting, and maybe hire an illegal immigrant laborer who has strong arms and shoulders.
