doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com John Wright & Sons.

I dunno,I saw the pattern shop scrape the ways on a lathe and it left a smooth but not shiny surface.I think it has to do with the angle that you scrape.

A true burnishing with a 'burnishing tool' will give the surface a very high polish. It also very slightly compresses the surface of the metal.
The 'Burnishing' of some metal parts prior to finishing (like case coloring) was sometimes done with fine wire wheels and the parts lightly coated with oil.
A blending of the surface polish lines results along with any deep marks that were missed show up glaringly.

Some burnishing tools are used to put only narrow lines into the surface of tight fitting parts to allow for lube. The same idea that engine turning/jeweling can be used.

I've seen an old picture in the past, probably very early 20th or late 19th century of European(?) gun factory workers using a burnishing tool with a long wooden handle of what I'd estimate to be 2 1/2ft with a burnishing tool in one end.
The worker placed the end of the wooden handle over his shoulder and pulled down on it with both hands burnishing the part with the extreme pressure that must apply.
Probably a fairly fast method too for someone with some experience.

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There are pickeling solutions and there are etching solutions. Pickeling solutions are used to remove oxidation & scale from heat treatment in most cases.
It will leave the surface with a somewhat brighter look than the etch.
Etch is used to matt a clean surface.
Some solutions will do both if left in long enough. Sometimes it's not the end result you wish for though!

Steel can be etched more evenly and safely with something like Ferric Chloride than most acids. But acids are what many think of when a steel etch is called for,,and with some form of heat which can lead to problems quickly.



Scrapping can leave any surface finish you wish. It all depends on the polish given to the tool doing the work.
The cut of the tool in the material is no better, no shinier than the polish given to the sharp edge on the tool.

Same as engraving tools/chisels. Shape and polish them to 600/800 or even 1200 and you'll have a nice but somewhat dull look to the cuts.
The same cuts will look like their name-sake if the tool is polished one step further on a ceramic plate with diamond paste.

Burnishing is the process of smoothing, polishing and slightly compressing the steel's surface by the forceful application of a highly-polished super-hard smooth surface, usually another piece of steel. No sharp edges on the burnisher, no metal removal from the surface being burnished. A perfect example, albeit in wood rather than steel, would be the old GI's trick of using a toothbrush handle to burnish his rifle's wooden stock.

Scraping OTOH is the process of actually removing a miniscule amount of steel in order to achieve more-even contact or to provide for better lubrication of sliding parts. It's usually done as Kutter described, by the operator bracing the long handle over his shoulder and applying pressure on the hardened-&-sharpened front edge as he draws it toward himself across the surface to be scraped. The tool's angle and the amount of pressure determine the amount of steel removed, anywhere from a few thousandths down to a ten-thousandth or less. The tool's operating end is flat, with a VERY slightly rounded front having a sharp right-angle termination; this right-angle is the edge that does the scraping.

Scraping was a common way of decorating the bolt bodies of prewar sporters, especially the higher-grade ones. A series of parallel lines are scraped at about a 45-degree angle around the bolt body, both ways, with a space of 1/4"-3/8" between them. This provides an attractive surface finish somewhat similar to engine-turning/jeweling.
Regards, Joe

I saw the Salter Baker-Wright rifle today. The "scraping" is very nice, and mysterious, but not anywhere near as nice and mysterious as John Oberlies' scraping. I have no idea how either was done, but it's a step or two up from engine turning.