The pic that the Preacher posted of the late Brad Bachelder's barrel finishing room tells a little about his process.
It seems apparent that he wasn't using the very short rusting cycles that are recommended by some finishers. Some of the barrels have a pretty dark and even coat of rust, and it wouldn't be possible to apply rusting solution, boil, and card, and repeat that many barrels in a short cycle time. But he managed to do pretty nice work, and got good contrast on Damascus. I haven't seen any examples of the work from his shop since he passed away. That's a nice little assembly line process, and I'd imagine that doing a bunch at once would considerably cut down the average time it takes, versus doing one or two at a time. Waiting to accumulate enough work to do them in batches probably often contributes to the time customers wait. I wonder how many more might be outside the field of view. With careful prep and hand carding, rust bluing and browning is pretty labor intensive and time consuming. People who do it well seem to have no shortage of paying customers.
