LEAVING A BARREL IN THE WHITE.

[Dispatch 510]

If you leave a barrel in the white,and put a coat of oil on it. Will it take on a nice grey patina type finish?
Thanks

[Voyageur]

 "Doc"

[oomcurt]

Interesting question! Hmm...I have a CVA kentucky pistol the barrel of which was never "treated". I just left it the way I got it...in the white. Now, I don't know if this would work...but what I've done with knives to give them a patina is take a paper napkin, saturate it with vinegar, wrap the blade with the napkin and let it sit for a few hours. The longer it sits..the more "patinized" it gets. I would not recommend letting it sit for longer than a couple of hours without checking it though. Now, if this would work with a barrel in the white? I dunno. I will say this though...with the vinegar treatment the finish I have gotten is not an even one as with a normal bluing treatment. It is more of a spotty or uneven finish..some areas are darker than others. I kind of like it. I do not know if this it towards everyones liking, but I figure if one let the barrel or the knife just "age", I don't think it would have a very even finish either. Seems to me, with mustard, what does the patinizing is the vinegar in it.

just my two cents....

[Three Hawks]

Leaving barrels "white" was a common practice for hundreds of years.  Simply using your rifle will allow it to age naturally.   If you take it out regularly it won't be long, either.

Three Hawks

[Hank in WV]

On the last rifle I built, I left it white and every time I shot it, when I cleaned it, I took a damp patch and wiped the vent area and lock and then wiped the whole barrel down with the very dirty patch. This would encourage a mild rust. At first it looked pretty sorry but after a year or so it started filling in. Now it looks like an original and not like an applied finish.

[Captchee]

well it depends on what you mean in the white .
 if you leave it ruff and un polished it will turn as rust grows on it .
IE it will brown itself .
 if you polish it  some it will also rust but you can better regulate it .
 my tulle i wanted to age so i actually left it out to get dew and a little rain on .  i then  wiped down the barrel with a dirty cleaning patch and let it set for a couple days . then oiled it .
 
 the thing to remember is a patina isn’t one color and it isn’t consistent. It builds naturally in different areas of the rifle.  Now you can speed that up  but  you still want to do it  so it looks natural . Thus you need for the patina to be darker in some places yet lighter in others
 Here is an  example.
 While building this SXS  I had  to   re draw the barrel and polish it in order to get the patterns to show back up  .
 This was compounded by  the locks which had an original patina on them
 So I had to  re patina the barrels so that they didn’t look new . Thus matching the other original hardware .
 This was done with onion and chlorine bleach   place on the hot  barrels . Notice how the color is different in the lock area compared to the barrels . This is because this area will either get real dark from lack of cleaning or  stay grey if  cleaned often  because of the BP fouling

 as you can see here Iron takes the patina differently then Damascus


 patena  on the barrels .
 now this set of barrels showed almost no patern  and 0 patern after filing . but  workin in the patena , this is what shows up .
at the time of this photo , the left barrel had been carded  but the right barrel had not . this was withing 5 minutes of  applying the mix to the hot barrels


 lock and breech area . notice how the color  naturaly  blends ?
 thats what your after .


 doing a patena artificaly is not a simple task . myself , i would  just file out your barrels . run a sand paper block over them  with 120 -150 grit  and then let things happen . you will be suprised  how quick it  will turn in just a few months time . its going to look nasty for a while  but the end result will be very pleasing to the eye

[jtwodogs]

Cap.
What is the mixture of bleach an onion.
Do you chop up an onion, and put it in a cup of bleach, then apply to barrel?

[Captchee]

well the mix depends on what you want to do . the onion creats the black  shaded area .  you can just slice an onion and rub it on , then let it set . with the barrels above , it  will react with the iron and start to pit .
 if your just wanting to make the patena on a modern barrel .  you could  chop the onion  and then wipe the barrel . watch it carfuly becouse  you never know the streanght of the onion. each is diffrent .
 once you see  it start to turn , card it off in hot water . what will be left is a gey to  black area .  once you have those areas done . take the barrel and heat it with  a clean heat source .
 you need it  hot enough that water will sizzle . then take a clean cloth "disposable becouse  it will not be any good later "  soak it with clorox so that its wet  . whipe the barrels while its hot .
 you will brown instantly .
 card the brown and re  heat and apply  to darken  the brown
 once you have  reached the color you want , clean the barrel very good with a mix of baking soda and water to nutralize the Iron oxide  and acids thats forming .  then oil it .

 remeber its trial and error ,  no barrel  comes out exsactly the same.
 if you dont like how it turns you can also just take  200 grit sand paper and just remove it . but remeber the darker the color the more it takes to remove

[jtwodogs]

Once again, totally amazing stuff you have in your arsenal of knowledge, Cap. Thanks so much for sharing you knowledge.
Jack

[Captchee]

your welcome , any time .

something else that folks may be interested in here
 i have had very good luck with  a baking soda paste .
 if you want a barrel to stay shinny  and not naturaly patena as fat .
 mix up a baking soad paste  real thick  and coat the barrels evenly . let this dry completely and then  brush it off . for some reason  this  seems to treat the barrels and inhibit the  natrual rusting / patena from forming on the barrel .
 thats what i have found anyway