"National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

[CJ Roberts]

Has anyone here had any experience with trying to replicate the look of the original "National Armory Brown" finish as seen on many Type II 1816s, 41s, Hall rifles, etc. on reproduction, restoration, or custom-build gun projects? While an approximation can certainly be achieved through browning the barrel, it appears to me that the originals I have seen have more of a sheen to them than is seen on barrels that have simply been browned. I have seen this finish referred to as a brown lacquer. Is it truly a lacquer? I noticed that Curt touched on this topic in another thread. I would be most interested in exploring it further. Thanks for any insight you can provide on this topic.

[ACo.]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

Yes, it is a lacquer used to protect the arm in storage and, as I recall, not meant to be left on the arm in service - it may have been meant to be removed by an armorer on issue. I will try to find the information and post about it unless someone comes up with it first.

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

TP,

So, to clarify...
The NAB finish is simply a rust-brown?

Thanks! This is something I've been wondering about, too.

[Blair]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

John,

A simple answer is, Yes, it is a form of artificially "rusting" of the surface of the metal.
I don't actually know what the chemicals were that they used originally.
Rust bluing and the more modern hot bluing is a variation of the same theme of chemically oxidizing the metal surface to achieve the desired results.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

Hallo!

Thanks for the Fayetteville memory lapse corection, I appreciate it.

IMHO, a number of firearm historians and their references seem to, appear to, mix up the two Period practices. The first is the browning, and the second is lacquering or "lacker" finishes.

"Lacker" was a continuation of old rifle-making techniques for finishing that involved a finish NUG use don stockwood that was an "oil varnish" made up of typically beeswax, turpentine, and boiled (hard) linseed oil sometimes with drying agents added. The Ordnance Manual receipe for small arms "lacker" was just beeswax, turpentine, and boiled linseed oil.

The "lacker" was not a finish but rather a temporary "protectant."

Acid/water browned iron takes on a flat "lifeless" color and look. When "varnished" the linseed oil and wax imparted a semi-lustrous "sheen" to it. However, on the other side of the coin, we do not know if someone 50, 75, or a 100 years later decided to varnish the metal and/or wood on some originals to protect it.

It is said that one of the reasons so many stocks and complete guns at Harpers Ferry went up so fast was that they were drying from being oiled or varnished or in storage.

Curt

[Blair]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

Curt,

I have often suspected the glossy like finish was a result of little more than warmed bees wax buffed into the browned surface of the metal. As for an added drying agent, I have found turpentine seems to be suficient. I use it for preventing bright work from rusting. Made into a paste wax by heating bees wax, boiled linseed oil and turpentine, rubbed into the stock helps to add better water proofing to the stock than a simple boiled linseed oil finish.
My problem is, I have not found a method of rust browning the surface of the metal that gives the smooth even finish.
I wish I knew what the Italians were doing to brown their barrels. This seems to be the closest in apperance to what you can seem on the originals.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

Hallo!

I do not know what the Italians are using. They seem to have two processes they use. The one produces a very nice deep even brown. The other looks more like brown tinted clear paint over shiny metal.

I believe, from my experience, that when "slow browning" by mild acid action over even by just evaporating water in a heated sweat box... that one has to "card" the metal with each application and not to let each additional application "eat" too long/too deeply before carding and applying the next.
The more aggressive the browning process, in the absence of carding, produces the "fuzzy" or "sand" textured type of browning.

When i used to brown, I would finish up by brushing the barel with baking soda to kill the acidic effect and after 'fuzzing." Then gently warm the barrel and soak it overnight in oil. Then dry it, warm it, and paint it with a grease/beeswax mix and rub the excess off.

Curt

[Blair]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

Yes, I believe this is true even when rust bluing.
You have to let the red rust develop over the metal first, then card (clean) that off to reveille the true chemically colored metal beneath.
This had to be a fast and practical method of preserving the surface of the metal. Or, after approximately nearly 50 of trying, they wouldn't have found it very useful.
Having to brown a part several time to achieve the desired color is not as simple as rust bluing the same part only once.
This is what gives me reason to believe the of method of browning is greatly simplified from what we know and understand today.
Perhapes, this metthod of preserving metal finishes, is lost to us because they weren't easire and faster or better?

[OldKingCrow]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

I've done both rust "brown" and black using soultion from DGW. I brown'd a m1841 barrel and black'n a M1860 Colt's revolver.

Like any finish, metal or otherwise surface prep is key. Wipe prepped parts with acetone......apply rust solution in same, even directional strokes, whilst keeping thine peanut pinchers / fingerprints off it....let it sit in warm, humid area... once its red you can card with steel wool whch has been acetone cleaned.... then more solution in successive coats...when happy with the color.... wash with baking soda - cool water wash and ir'al it to settle rust.

If'n youns wants to blackn....bile that same piece in PURE water...remember keep your bare booger hooks off it....

The water must be PURE....Walgreens or drugstow brand ozonated purified drining water works fine. The red / brown rust then oxidizes to black rust when boiled. Again succesive coats and bile'n gets it blacker and a richer satin. An end cap'd piece of sch40 PVC for to which pouring the biling water in works for long barrels and such.

Chris Rideout
Tampa, Florida

[ndnchf]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

This topic was discussed on another forum. I have no way to confirm this, but another fellow posted what he said were the original materials list for National Armory Brown. There was no mention of how it was applied.

The materials are:
1 1/2 oz. Spirits of Wine

1 1/2 oz. Tincture of Steel

1/2 oz. Corrosive Sublimate

1 1/2 oz. Sweet Spirits Nitre

1 oz. Blue Vitriol

3/4 oz. Nitric Acid

To be mixed and dissolved in one quart of soft water, the mixture to be kept in glass bottles.

[Michael Comer]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

I'm curious as to the amounts of beeswax, turpentine and linseed oil used in the menu to 'lacker' the wood and metal.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

Hallo!

I was just signing off, so someone else can do the math to reduce the quantity:

Beeswax............................13 lbs.
Spirits turpentine................13 galls.
Boiled linseed-oil.................1 gall.

Curt

[Harold]

Re: "National Armory Brown" Barrel Finish Process

I know this is an old thread, but I thought this information useful and more appropriately added here as a response rather than a new post.

There are several very old recipes for rust brownes used in the U.S. and in England in the 19th century that contain the following chemicals: mercuric chloride, copper sulphate, ferric chloride, nitric acid, sweet spirit of nitre, and ethyl alcohol. Variations on the amounts of each chemical and the process can yield a deep brown, black, or something in between those colors. In Firearms Bluing and Browning by R. H. Angier, the following is a footnote for one of the recipes using this combination of chemicals, with the U. S. Bureau of Standards listed as the source.
"According to C. W. Sawyer the ordinary browne for brown colour used from 1800 to 1860 by the U. S. Government Armouries, also for plain finish sporting guns. Ordinary operating method for brown colour."
The recipe includes 3.75 g mercuric chloride, 2.6 g copper sulphate, 1.9 g 29% ferric chloride, 1.9 g D. 1.42 nitric acid, 3.9 g 4% spirit of nitre, 6.2 g 90-proof ethyl alcohol, and enough water to make a final volume of 100 mL.
This should be enough information should the original poster want to research this further.

Another browne, reported to leave more of a black finish, and Shooting and Fishing magazine 1898 referenced as the source, is noted to "formerly be used by the Government Armoury, Springfield" consists of 3.0 g mercuric chloride, 50 mL 4% spirit of nitre, and 50 mL of 95-proof ethyl alcohol.
For this browne, more information on the process is provided.
"Preparation. First dissolve the chloride in the alcohol, let stand for 6 hours, then add the spirit of nitre. Being practically anhydrous, this browne is frost-proof. Working instructions. At Springfield the parts to be browned were degreased by rubbing with whiting or powdered gypsum, or by boiling in potash solution: the browne applied with sponge. Duration of rusting 8 hours for the first, 6 hours for each subsequent pass. (Boiling or steaming assumed, but no note on this.) Scratching after each pass with a 9" circular brush of spring-steel wire, 5/1000" (36 Brown & Sharpe gauge), running at 800 revs./min. (peripheral speed 31.4 ft./sec.). Simple oiling after last pass. Stelle & Harrison give a slightly different composition, and working instructions as follows. Let rust in a warm room for 10 to 12 hours in summer, 15 to 20 hours in winter, rub off rust with cloth and repeat till colour dark enough (no mention of boiling)." Angier's footnote states, "At room temperature, this browne acts very slowly, therefore best used in connection with (improved or regular) steam chamber, then giving a very good, deep black in 3 to at most 4 passes."

Andrew Hall