Barrel Flecking?

[Pheasant Slayer]

Could someone in the forum please give me a detailed description of "Barrel Flecking"? I have heard this term many times. I have heard it used for "rust". I have heard it used for oxidation. Thanks........

[Roundsworth]

If it is the same as 'flaking', I have seen it on some Break-Top S&W revolvers I had. They were used very little, but the bluing had spots where it actually looked like the blue layer was flaking off, not worn as a holster would cause.

[Don Kaas]

I would disagree. It really is not the same as "flaking" which is the lifting of portions of the blued layer of material.(Model 21 floorplates frequently do this) "Flecking" is the appearance of small rust blooms along the surface of the barrels. They are about the size of pin heads. They usually appear on guns and barrels stored in humid environments. Rust blued barrels seems more prone to this phenomena than do Du-lite type blued items. At their most beign and early stage, they can be effectively removed with 0000 steel wool and Hoppes #9 (or similar) but if left unchecked they become pits over time. One of my wife's orchid people move some of my spare barrels last spring while relocating her greenhouse and placed them quite carefully in a cabinet in my garage. I thought nothing of it. A few months later a rather nice set of spare original factory blued set of 30" #2 frame DHE Titanic BTFE barrels I happened to look for had "flecks" along their entire length while the other 10 sets of various barrels were unaffected...go figure...

[Pheasant Slayer]

Thank you, I have heard this term many times.