Hi all. I tried Tony's barrel browning technique as described in his book and my results were not so good. I was hoping someone here could help me out and maybe tell me where I went wrong.
I used some old barrels that I have from a parts/project gun. They are laminated steel. I struck them up and degreased/cleaned them. That all went fine and I've done that before as I've done some rust bluing in the past. I used Tony's technique of soaking the barrels in copper sulfate. That also worked pretty well. When done with that step I could clearly see the laminate pattern. So far so good. I then went to the actual browning. I used Mark Lee's Express Brown #2. It is here where things didn't go so well. After applying my first coat of this solution, any contrast I had from the copper sulfate bath pretty much disappeared ??
What am I missing or what did I do wrong ? I have a couple ideas that I have been thinking about. Should I have diluted the solution down with water ? Maybe the solution is too strong out of the bottle. My other idea involved the way I applied the solution. I just used some pieces of old tee shirt (something I do when I rust blue). Did I maybe rub the contrast right off the barrels ?
Any advice you guys could give would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Vince
