Save your fifty dollars. You could do more harm than good messing around in the chamber areas. That pit wont hurt a thing.

I've found this thread, for myself, to be a little thought provoking. Wouldn't the "traditional method" involve dissolving nails and concocting your own home brew? What I'm trying to figure out is regarding the question of "Does it matter how you make the barrel rust, or is rust really just...rust?"

Brian Dudley's mention of Mark Lee's Express formula really caught my attention. Five hours to completion is really impressive, so I started doing my own research.

It appears that every gun maker had their own secrets regarding what went in to making their own rust formulas. Those proprietary formulas, combined with temperature and humidity levels, were what determined the amount of time barrels sat to rust between cardings. Obviously, shorter rust times resulted in faster production - a common goal of every manufacturing outfit. In reading Mark Lee's website, it is very interesting to note that Winchester had a process which would only require barrels to be in the box for 7-15 minutes at a time. Don't you know they were guarding those secrets like the Colonel's Chicken Recipe.

Isn't Pilkington's just a modern alternative solution that was commercially developed by Phil Pilkington to mimic a portion of the traditional rust blue method? My guess is that when Pilkington's hit the market that there were many gunsmith's who shunned it initially, until later discovering that it too would produce an aesthetically pleasing finish that was also durable. It works, and so the formula gained adoption.

Very interesting points you make Will. I am no metallurgist, but as you suggest isn't all that is required a consistent and uniform layer of rust, not too little and not too much? What one uses to get there is more of a production efficiency issue than a quality issue? I don't know myself. I would be interested to hear some other experienced opinions.

What I meant as traditional was a method of rusting, boiling, carding and etching. However after reading articles, Parker had an extremely unique way of finishing the barrels. It is possible to replicated however, I have already invested in the way to complete my barrels such as Oscar Gaddy described in his Finishing of Damascus Steel - Part 2 article. Truly traditional involves using chemicals that are extremely dangerous.

Since slow rusting is slow... I will not be able to do, for example, lets say 16 cycles in one sitting. One thing the articles never discuss is how/when to pause the process and start it back up.

I will chime in, I can't resist it after spending the last five days with my son, rusting and carding Damascus. Slow rust bluing"blackening" is a no brainer process that can easily be done with several comercially available products. The secret to slow rust is prep, patina,and color. Damascus finishing is a totally different animal. I make all of my own formulas and they vary greatly with the type of steel that we are working with.
Dr. Gady provided a very good account of the original method. What he did not reveal were all of the control considerations, what to do when things don't work.It took me ten years to fully understand these controls. I would suggest that you follow Oscars instructions closely and there is a good chance it will work. I would not incorporate the Lacquer step. Logwood is a very critical step.

Brad

I am aware that both Brad and Dale Edmonds have redone many Damascus barrels that were first attempted by others.

One set I saw was never going to turn out well because acid etching had created such a difference between the steel and iron elements. A substantial amount of material needed to be removed.

Good luck.

Brad if you are still paying attention, Were do you get logwood. And what do you do when you have to pause during the rusting process like at night when it is time to close up and you haven't completed enough rusting processes.

Wayne,
Logwood extract can be purchased from several sources. Even ebay. It is sold primarily for dying metal traps black. Can be purchased in 1 lb. packages. And it isnt that expensive when purchased that way. It is much more expensive when purchased from a textile outlet.

I tried doing Damascus and gave up completely. I do use Mark Lee's Express Blue on fluid steel blued barrels and like Brian, I can do a set, once prepared, in five hours or less, one coat boiled right after another and finished in an afternoon. I am very happy with the results, but learned to boil them several times before starting the process to remove oil. It comes from nowhere and ruins a job (streaked) right as you are finished if you don't.

But I did learn a few tricks; one is that if you do see oil floating on the top of the water, one floods the tank washing the oil over the side. Pulling them out through the oil will streak/ruin your bluing job. After streaking a few sets I also learned not to start over from scratch, but just to take the oil streaks out and let them "catch up" in subsequent coats.

But I am an admitted amateur.

Wayne,

My plan is, if I have to stop before completion, stop on the wet carding of the barrels step after the chemical etching bath step. After wet carding I will move to a warm water bath of distilled water and Sodium Bicarbonate to neutralize any acids remaining, let set for an hour, rinse with hot water then force dry with a heat gun.

Then I will run wood dowels through the barrels, making sure a couple inches stick out on both sides, so I can suspend them on wood blocks on my bench and drape with a de-greased plastic bag to keep dust off.

To start back up, I may or may not wipe down with acetone.

If you are interested I have put together a procedure on how to do the barrels specifically with Pilkingtons. I can send it to by email.

Derek