Maintaining Damascus Barrels

[Brad Bachelder]

It is best to avoid coating composite Barrels with Lacquer, Shellac, or Poly finishes. These finishes can allow oxidation to occur under the finish and will eventually crack and chip. The best routine that I have found is very simple and yields great results.
The product most compatible with our finishing process, is available at most hardware stores. Watco Danish Oil Finish in natural tone. This Rust-Oleum product is a semi-permable coating that both cleans and protects. The secret is to keep a single coat rather than a build up of finish. Watco contains Petroleum Distillates that will emulsify the existing coat, cleaning the metal and leaving a new protective coating.
Apply with a cotton patch, generously flooding the surface. Use gentle pressure and simply coat the entire surface. Let the Barrels set for one hour. With clean heavy duty paper towel, agressively burnish the finish until dry, but slightly tacky. Let set for two more hours and repeat the burnish. Allow to dry for 24 hours before use.
Hint: Clean up extra finish in rib edges and matting with a toothbrush.
This process should be done only once or twice a year. For regular wipedowns, use a high quality, non solvent, gun oil.
Avoid the use of other solvents, abrasives or chemicals. Treat the bores as you would any other Barrels.

Brad

[Bob Jurewicz]

Brad's recommendation of Watco Oil was mentioned a while back in a previous post that showcased one of his damascus refinishes.
I have tried it an was very pleased with results. It highlights the contrast and adds a very natural looking luster. I most recently tried it on rust blued barrels and was equally as pleased.
Bob Jurewicz

[Drew Hause]

Thank you Brad. I added your recomendation here
https://docs.google.com/a/damascusknowledge.com/document/d/1EGInyr3CsRadXkmTYRak4TWK-pCB3cN5Wgg51u_SnEM/edit
Any thoughts on EEZOX?
http://www.eezox.com/gun-care.html

[Brad Bachelder]

Drew,
eezox is great on modern firearms, we don't use it on vintage guns.
Quite often the protected area of original Barrels , under the forearm, will retain 100 % of their original contrast and finish. The finish is gently yellowed.Precleaning with mineral spirits removes the yellowed finish, which lead me to believe that the Barrels were finished with a natural oil based coating. After considerable experimentation we settled on an oil based coating to finish our Restorations. This finish is best maintained with the use of Watco. I try to use the same low-tech chemicals and finishes that the makers used 100 years ago.

Brad

[edgarspencer]

I vaguely recall my dad saying he used to wipe his damascus barrels with boiled linseed oil.

[Richard Flanders]

I wax mine with IBIZ, a pure carnuba wax with no abrasives that puts one hell of a hard finish on that looks great and protects well.