A thread about:
http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=210982#Post210982

The stuff sure darkens up the wood. Was likely revolutionary, circa 1950s or so, but, I've moved on to poly for guns I use.

The R10 in this photo is Lin-Speed:

[img]http://www.imageuploads.net/ims/pic.php?u=39559eHIOu&i=191576[/img]


Best,
Ted

Well that brings back some memories. The first gunstock I refinished as a teenager I used Linspeed on. It made a pretty durable finish as I remember.
Jim

I used it on a walnut bench I built over 30 years ago and she still looks good.Does tend to darken the wood but sometimes that is a good thing.

I have been using a 50/50 mixture of Tru-Oil and mineral spirits. I rub it on with a folded paper towel and I sand with 000 steel wool for the first coats and 0000 for the final coats.

As I do not stain my wood, I would like to know which gives the darker richer color:
Tru-Oil
Boiled Linseed Oil
Lin-Speed

Here is Tru-Oil on maple:



Tru-Oil on walnut:



Tru-Oil on a 1956 Model 37:



Lou

Ted - I think that's the nicest looking Darne I've ever seen. The wood came out cool, but what is the finish on the action? It looks blued with painted on smoke wisps! What is it?

Kid,
I'm going to go out on a limb, and guess you really are a kid, or at least younger than 30, or so. Bear with me.
That finish is what is known as cyanide case coloring, a process that came on strong after about WWII. I believe a few American guns had that finish, usually lower end guns like Stevens and Savage shotguns. My Darne was built in 1946, and would have been among the first finished with that method.
It was easier and cheaper than true bone pack case coloring. The "loss leader" of the Darne gun line, post WWII, the R10, was always finished that way.
I'm told that the cyanide process does impart some hardness to steel, but, I've seen plenty of examples with "flaked" finish, and wonder how hard they can be. Post WWII, Darne started using alloy tool steel forgings of higher quality than the pre-WWII Darne guns, so, maybe it doesn't matter what the hardness is. Standard proof Darnes got French TC steel forgings, magnums got XTC, both are molydenum steels, XTC is higher in chrome, and a [censored] to blue, by the way.
I like case colors on a gun, but, will admit I like true, bone pack colors, better.

Best,
Ted

Starrett Tool Co was a big user of Cynanide hardened parts for many of their products. I can assure you it does produce a hard skin & don't recall ever seeing a Starrett that "Peeled". I did not object to this finish on an adjustable paralell for instance, but also much prefer the bone charcoal method on a shotgun. According to Machinery's Handbook a bone process under normal methods also produces a deeper case than does the Cyanide method.

Science has finally found a use for raw linseed oil. It turns out to be a superior oil for seasoning new cast iron cookware. The type used is flaxseed oil found in your local pharmacy or health food store promoted as a diet suppliment.

OB

Ted - Ted - Ted - Ted - Ted You obviously don't know know that Remington ear Parkers and Fox guns starting in the late nineteen teens were were cyanide case colored, don't think there is anything cheap about those guns and I have never seen cyanide colors on a properly prepared piece of steel flake. And yes cyanide case treatment hardens steel just as well as the bone and charcoal method if proper temperatures are used.

Actually, IF you had read what I posted, I noted it came on strong post WWII-I never said it wasn't used prior, and I noted that "usually" it was used on lower grade guns at that time. A 1946 vintage DARNE would have been among the first DARNE guns finished that way. That was my point.
As Miller noted, the bone pack produces a deeper case. "Just as well" your words, would seem to imply the two methods produce equal results, not the case at all.
If you've never seen a gun with flaked colors, you are simply ignorant, which can be corrected with some insight from someone with more experience. Check out this picture of a gun with flaked colors:
[img]http://www.imageuploads.net/ims/pic.php?u=39559eHIOu&i=191587[/img]


[img]http://www.imageuploads.net/ims/pic.php?u=39559eHIOu&i=191588[/img]

You need to get out more....


Best,
Ted

Let me wipe the egg off my beard, Ted, and tell you I'm 56! I just never saw any guns with that "hardening" before. You mention some "lower end guns" used that finish - that may explain it. I grew up in the biggest castle in Indian Orchard and was raised with only the best of the best of EVERYthing, snif sniff. Mayhaps one of the butlers had a gun like this, but I'll never know. Father had to shoot them dead for wrinkling his best suits. By the way, where is my friend Lowell Glenthorne?

Note that in either case the Colors are superficial, being only at the surface. The Case is the depth to which carbon has penertrated & alloyed with the steel, allowing it to harden at the quench. Carbon penertration is a combination of temp & time. I am not certain what the absolute maximum is for either method, but as normally done the charcoal method results in a deeper case than the normal Cyanide method. The loss of color is purely cosmetic & in no way affects the integrity of the steel beneath.

Sure is ugly, though...I think Lowell might be on border duty, he said he wanted to go.

Best,
Ted

Teddy that frog gun looks like something with painted on colors that easy Ed would be peddeling.

Agreed, the latest pics, which shows the receiver much closer up than the first shot Ted showed, is rather like a finish akin to cheap "japaned" enamel of the 19th century. But the first pic just took me by surprise, the gun was farther away and my eyes saw the finish more as colors and NOT coloring, if you get my drift.

I still am, however, planning on getting a pair of shoes with this cyanide treatment.

Glad you learned something...Don't mention it.

Best,
Ted

Well yes, of course, implicit in my words is the "thank you" for furthering my knowledge of all facets of these guns we love.

Actually, truth be told, I think I still would give the nod to the cyanide over the Art Nouveau silver & gold deal shown on another Darne.

I wasn't actually referring to you....


Best,
Ted

By the way, Kid, the FIRST gun pictured is a 12 gauge R10 that I own, built circa 1946. The SECOND and THIRD pictures are of a mid 1970s or so R10 20 gauge that Galazon has been trying to peddle (unsuccessfully) for quite some time.

The colors on gun number one are higher quality and better work than on gun number two, which, is typical of Darne (and other guns) built in two different eras. Gun number two is far from the first cyanide case colored gun I have seen that has flaked off colors.

Inspite of what you may have read elsewhere.

Best,
Ted