doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Old Rust Bluing Technique

Have any of you gentleman tried putting shellac on a swab and coating the insides of the barrels?
I usually use the plugs on each end only so that the barrels have a place to rest in my rusting box.
I started using a rusting box because I became inmpatient with the time. I should try hanging them now, the temperature and humidity is high and if I hung them outside I should get a decent rusting sooner then in my basement. I have a humidity gage and in the rusting box with a small bowl of water on a heat plate, I could get 80%+ in there, getting a nice orange rust in a shorter time. (3-4 hrs.) Should be able to d the same outside.

Cheers Toby. I've built a "boiling trough" today in preparation for my first attempt at this. I think the suggestion of putting the barrels in our busy bathroom is excellent and I'll sweaten the mrs up to make sure I do this...hopefully the ribs are OK on these barrels! T

I've got my Angier book back and looking at c10k (brummy black) and I'm not good at deciphering the details...is it;

Copper Sulphate 51 grams
ferric chlorage solution 31 grams (how do u measure this for a solution?)
Nitric Acid 51 grams
Alcohol (90 is that 90 proof lol?) 59 grams
water 1/4 of a US pint (just normal tap water or distilled?)

Cheers
T

The major corrosive component in Laurel Mountain Forge solution is ferric chloride.

OB

Ballistix Your interpretation of Angier is way off. I spent considerable time and effort researching this down to doing mole counts and eventually researching Brit. Pharmacopias to figure out what error Angier made in his interpretation of Birmingham Black. Initial conversion as written in Angier is as follows. To make 100ml
2.8gms Cu So4
8.25gms Ferr Chloride when using 29%Sol/41deg Baume/1.388 sg
11.75 gms of 20% W/V sol Nitric acid
1.53 gms alcohol of 95% strength
Add distilled water to make up to 100ml total
Tip Nett weight of mixing vessel then add 100gms water to establish true 100ml volume. I found graduated beakers to be up to 20% off.
Any further information only available over copious Morlands!!!
Good Luck

Ah that doesnt surprise me...but I invigorated a response which is splendid. Thanks for the detail will have a play!
T

What is CU so4?

Hello Ballistix999,

When I went to school CUSO4 was Copper Sulphate. However that was a long, long time ago and knowing Governments they probably renamed it or something.

Harry

Copper Sulphate, As a chrystalized solution it will translate weight for weight.

CuSO4 is the chemical symbol for anhydrous copper sulphate, that is having no water of crystallisation present. It's a very pale green to greyish white powder.

The stuff you by over the counter is usually the bright blue pentahydrate; that is it has five molecules of water attached and is properly denoted as CuSO4.5H2O

Angier intended that the anhydrous form be used unless the word "cryst" is given as a suffix in the formulation.

The basic chemical natures of the two are the same, but using the pentahydrate will put fewer copper ions into the mix than using an equal weight of the anhydrous form. If all you can get is the blue stuff add 1/3 by weight extra, and you'll be close enough.


Angier stated that at the time of writing only 92 elements were known; things have certainly gone with a bang since then!

Eug