A very nice job! Congratulations.






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Agreed

Excellent work

Great job.

Just saw this Bill. You are mistaken. I have never drilled a weep hole or recommended it. I should never be done, ever, when using the rust blue methods for fluid or damascus finishing.

It may be necessary for some types of hot bluing but I am totally unfamiliar with those methods and have never used them.

To clarify, I card with wet baking soda to lightly card after the etchant dip. The baking soda stops further action of the etchant and removes the color loosened by the etchant. It is not used for carding the barrels after rusting.

I am back restoring my own damascus barrels. I have modified my former approach to get more consistency. Getting consistent results takes a lot of trial and error. Most develop their own tweaks on the overall process. The results of my new tweaks is very encouraging.

Hi Tom. I was referring to both documents; yours and Dr. Gaddy’s. In one of Gaddy’s was mentioned a second weep hole.

I’m sure all of us interested in the process the process would value hearing whatever tweaks you’re willing to share.

This is my last set. No logwood involved.

Absolutely beautiful Bill. You have obviously developed your own tweaks. I have more experimenting to do before I publish my new twists and turns. When I get consistent results on all barrels, I'll share my thoughts.

Some barrels are harder than others. When I can do any barrel the same way and get good consistent results, I'll post my tweaks.

Thanks Tom. No kidding. The 4-iron was misery. The layers are so thin. This Washington was one of the easier ones thus far because the pattern edges are more distinct.

I like your wisdom around success with any barrel. I still consider my successes to have been educational accidents. Either way, it’s interesting, fulfilling, and frustrating.

Shellac or Urethane?
 

I was wondering about the urethane coat. I rust blue pretty regularly, in fact, it’s my regular bluing method. I work primarily on doubles and other higher end guns, so it didn’t make sense to maintain a set of tanks that would sit idle most of the time. I’m about to do my first Damascus barrel for a customer. It’s a Parker with Stubbs Twist barrels. I’ll probably be posting a lot of questions during the course of this new endeavor. Any help would be very welcome. I have Tom Flanagan’s article as a starting point. Where can Dr. Gaddy’s instructions be found?

I use shellac to mask bores and other areas in my rust blue jobs. It’s easy to apply, seems to stay intact very well even through repeated boiling cycles, and is really easy to remove at the end. Would it do well on Damascus finishing? I tried urethane early on my rust bluing. It is very hard to remove, especially from interiors of receivers and other tight spots, and sometimes, some of the stripping compounds recommended for urethane removal are very bad on the new finish. Can shellac be used with the etching steps? Your advice would be appreciated.

I have never used shellac but I imagine it would work. I use urethane for damascus because you typically have to do many more iterations of rust, card, etch and boil. But you might be onto something with shellac. I'll try it and If it stays intact, I'll switch. It certainly would be a lot easier to remove from the bores.

Why not just use rubber stoppers like so many others do?





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