1st Phase of GH Restoration

[Derek Iske]

Originally Posted by will evans

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.

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.

[Parker Bachelder (Brad's Profile)]

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