doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Coating the inside of barrels

I have blued some sets of barrels over the years and have been happy with the results. I used hand turned plugs to plug the bores. I read that some of you coat the bores with varnish. What type of varnish, how do you apply it, and how do you remove it when it comes time. Thanks.

Swampman

Swampman. The tradition Brit method is to use a low cut of Shellac in Alcohol so it is about the constituency of cream. Plug the muzzle with a cork then fill the bore to the top with the Shellac mixture then pour it out hang up the barrels and remove the cork and let the excess drip out, in doing so it will cover the places where the cork has been. To remove the Shellac re-cork and fill the bores with Alcohol let it stand for a while then swab the bores out with a cloth pull through soaked in Alcohol to remove the worst of the Shellac. Then use a cleaning rod with patches it may sound rather a long job but it is infact quite quick but sticky.

If you don't have shellac, thin Tru-oil or similar about one-half with mineral spirits. Remove with acetone.

I use shellac, but only when doing damascus finishing so the etching won't eat the bore surfaces. The shellac holds up just fine to the boiling water cycles.

Plain rust bluing either slow or express, I've never sealed the bores or coated them while rusting or boiling. Never had any problems in nearly 50yrs of doing this.

Thanks you guys. Cold day in the swamp here today.