Angier: P.139 Para. 4
2 Piper
Dead right: he doesn't mention etching damascus but does mention matting. He also mentions that derusted part don't tend to after-rust.
Another nice feature of Boric is that it cleans out rust pits very thoroughly down to good metal so you don't have to worry so much about dark spots in the pattern when there are small but deep pits that you don't want to/can't strike out.
Also, if you polish to about 800, it mattes the surface of the iron for the browning solution to 'get a grip' but doesn't matte the steel much at all so as the browning proceeds the steel gets re-polished simply by carding off the surface rust.
Keith
One of the tricks of the old 'fowlers and punt gunners was to copper plate their guns/cripple stoppers. I am at present restoring a Grant sidelever that was given this treatment and even though well worn in the wood, the engraving on the action is pristine!
However, some of the remaining copper plate is the very devil to remove! Other bits just flake off and most of the barrels were worn down to the damascus other than were it was deposited into scratches and pits.
Last edited by Toby Barclay; 01/05/13 04:30 PM.
