doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com cleaning damascus barrels

I just got a black powder W Moore that I would like to bring out some of the twist.I have rubbed and cleaned with alcohol and tried carb cleaner and have gotten some of the film off but they still need a little more. OOO Steel wool? I put some Watco Danish oil which really makes them shine you just can't see enough twist...No I am not getting them refinnished....at least not for now.

I'm not totally sure but I seem to remember reading about using chalk, I think it was on the LC Smith site or from Dr Drew House. Hopefully he will chime in.

Some suggestions here, courtesy of Joe Woods, Brad Bachelder, Bro. Roy and others
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EGInyr3CsRadXkmTYRak4TWK-pCB3cN5Wgg51u_SnEM/edit?pli=1

There are more methods of treating and producing a finish on gun barrels than there seems to be stars in the sky. Though there was a man who sort to catalogue it all and in doing so produced a very fine book to try and make some sense out of it for us mortals, his name is R.H. Angier and his fine book is �Firearm Bluing And Browning� does not cost a great deal it is in print and it will help you understand why the original process of bluing was called browning amongst other things. If you have an interest or just want to know how firearm colour finishes where and are done or want to try it yourself this is the book for you.

I've accomplished what you want by using 0000 steel wool and WD-40. But you will need to remove the Watco Danish Oil you have applied first. 000 steel wool is too coarse and may scratch and remove too much oxidation from both the iron and steel in the Damascus. Go slowly and gently, cleaning and checking your progress often. Once you've gone too far, you can't go back without refinishing.

Damascus
I want to improve the finnish. I have gone too far with my buddy's gun but thank god he is not intrested in double gun blog or he would chew my you know what out for messing his gun up. It came put a little shiney with the flitz or Hagerty which is what I have.I think it still looks better than the muddy look it had. The chalk did not doo much or enough.I can't say it didn't help some.I think the Haggerty pollish which is simular to the Flitz takes out too much oxidation.To sum it up test on your buddies gun before you do your own.
I will order Firearm and bluing next. I have gotten ten confirmations from Amazon today.All about Damascus

Hi Jeweler.

I am just old enough to have worked and talked to men who earned a living working in the Birmingham gun industry and some of them could remember working in the 1920s browning barrels and of course my ears pricked up right away. The sum of what information I could write down besides a few ancient recipes for browning solutions which I have never tried was this, Browning barrels according to them was more an art form �all muck and magic� and not just an industrial process like bluing, in fact bluing was a far easier. This is my personal view on the subject of the definition change on Damascus barrels,is some older methods increased the definition between Iron and Steel by using Tannic Acid or Gallic acid on the barrels first then the normal rust browning solution. Now I do have a gun that was finished in this way some forty years ago and at first it was stunning but now it is just a rather flat brown colour with far less definition caused I am sure by the passage of time. And I feel sure that cleaning the barrels will do very little to improve matters it is all in how the finish was first formed.

Damascus

After looking at the barrels this morning sober they look a lot better than they did.The chalk was helping but it seemed super slow. It might have been the chalk ,I could only find some dustless chalk at Office Depot.When I switched to the Hagerty all metal polish it did the trick.They are still not perfect but they do not look like two dark brown poles.When I get the book I'll have to look up how to use the acids and maybe experiment on some of my wall hangers.I really want to bring out some of the white and black contrast I'm not too big on the brown.
thanks

Try coating the barrels with Simonize or another good quality hard wax. I've found this to be a good way to bring the damascus pattern back.
Jim