I have seen a lot of posts on here of good barrel browners, keith Kearcher, Kirk etc all mentioned above, ( in the uk ballistix999 ) they seem to have got the colour spot on, Rookhawk you list the guns you have and date them and you are rightly concerned about the right finish, my grandads family covered a huge amount of the trade from at least 1850 in London and Birmingham, I would say that some of the types of iron and steel play a big part in the final colour, Greeners barrels that they had browned came out a chocolate brown, their formula contained mercuric chloride which is a poison ( I suggest you never use this ) and I think this helped them to obtain this finish, but I do find that all the damascus brls I do all come out different shades not orange or grey but some will darken a lot and others will get to a certain stage and just say right thats as dark as I am going, any one who has spent a length of time browning will tell how different the irons and steels colour, these were both finished with my formula, but different in colour.
