Polishing new barrels bright

[dclarry]

I building up an 1861 Springfield this winter, so I have a brand new barrel to polish "armory bright'". This is my first attempt at building a musket from the ground up. The barrel has light machining marks, etc, and I need to polish these out. There are several threads with information on stock re-finishing, and some threads with de-farbing advice regarding barrels, but I don't see any on polishing a new barrel. I apologize if I this topic has been beaten about previously.

So, I seek advice on polishing a new 1861 barrel, such as whether to use any mechanical tools or do it all by hand, sanding cloth/block recommendations, etc.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

[unionprivate]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

When I clean my Enfield, bluing taken off already, I use a simple green steel wool pad. Gives me a good shine every time and I get about three or so cleanings from it. Theyre inexpensive at maybe $3 for a 4 pack. Nowif I was in the field, I would take a damp cloth, dip a bit in the fire pit, a cold fire pit, and use the ashes that build up as a scrubbie. This method in the field works wonders, however a little more time consuming.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

Hallo!

"Polishing" metal is basically replacing deeper scratcehs with progressively finer and finer scratches until the human eye no longer perceives individual scratches but a uniform sheen or shine.

Basically, there are two ways to do that- one with only elbow grease and the other with power tools.
One can pick up a range of abrasive "sandpapers" (the higher the number like 200, 400, or 600- the finer the grit), or SCOTS BRITE pads, or cloth buffing wheels and grit compound for an electric motor or buffer. (I have a free bench mounted motor from a scraped washing machine for when I am lazy and want to spend only a few minutes of time...)

A problem with hand held "sandpaper" is the amount of time and "elbow grease" one is willing to spend.
A problem with cloth buffing wheels is a tendency to produce incorrect modern "mirror" type finishes that are too "bright."
Both methods can be used to replicate the look of a period armory "burnished" barrel- it is just what is available to one to use, or what one would rather do in terms of money, time, and energy.

Once the barrel is polished, IMHO it should be maintained in one of two ways:

1. With SCOTS BRITE pads or steel wool and oil,
or more historically correct
2. With a mildly abrasive paste made from campfire ash and water (as Civil War soldiers often did).

IMHO the use of ash paste keeps a "bright" barrel is the appearance of a field maintained weapon.

Others' mileage may vary...

Curt

[Charles Heath]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

Curt's advice is great, as always. But how was it done at the armory? By machine.

I'll lament the passing of a fine article that described the manufacturing process from start to finish. It would be of help at this point in time, but it is safe to say that great water powered manufacturing era (slowly converting to steam) was blessed with belt driven buffers not unlike those we used in our own younger years in shops that OSHA would shut down today. In so many cases, we try to do by hand what they were doing via machinery in a very industrialized age.

A handy 6" or 8" home shop type bench grinder with a few buffing wheels and some grit would be good. Believe it or not, Sears can fix you right up with a variety of polishing compounds in stick form. Just take a moment to seek them out, and determine ferrous vs non-ferrous compounds. Some of the valve lapping paste in the little green cans may be a bit "faster," than you want for relatively soft repop musket barrel metal, so be careful. Practice on a couple of old tools first to get an idea of what happens. A few thoughts:

1. Wear your safety glasses, too. A clump of old compound flung off a seemingly harmless old buffing wheel at high speed can do a lot of damage to an eye.

2. Remove the wheel or wire brush on the other arbor, and replace it with a buffing wheel while you do this. If you work in close quarters, tapping the barrel on a grinding wheel will not make your day any better, whereas a buffing wheel with a different compound will leave but a smudge.

3. Variable speed bench grinders are a Godsend.

4. Go slow. Enjoy it.

5. After all is said and done, go over the barrel with damp rottenstone and a good clean rag. You'll appreciate the handwork, and it will remove the mirror finish.

At some point in the future, you will look at the grit and buffing pads and wonder what else can be polished. There is a whole world of items that need a good clean up, but you will also find a mirror finish cutting edge can be placed on a number of chisels, plane blades, spokeshaves, knives, and other tools with a little forethought and effort.

(Curt, me, too. Cheap evidently runs in our blood. Is your old washing machine motor mounted on a hinge to maintain belt tension, as the 1950s era Pop. Mech. article said to do?) :tounge_sm

[dclarry]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

Gentlemen, thank you for the great responses thus far. I had no idea about the use of ashes for field maintenance of the bright barrel.

For the initial 'armory' finish, a buffing wheel seems like a sound way to go, and a machine-buffed finish would be period correct, as long as I don't get carried away and make it a modern mirror finish. Sounds like a trip to Sears may be in order, or I need to salvage an old motor. The variable-speed option seems like good thing to have, though, so I might just buy a new buffing wheel and not make a second project out of building a polishing station, although that holds its charms. Too bad, I was hoping not not to have to acquire any new tools...yeah, right!

Also, I'll need to remove some modern markings. That has been well served in other threads, but if anyone wants to add their favorite method (file, Dremel, etc.) I would certianly appreciate it. This thread could continue, with the moderator's permission of course, as I work on the project and come up with new questions about bulding a musket up from new parts.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

Hallo!

Naw, the washing machine motor was just screwed to a steel plate, which was bolted to the work bench top.
The double buffing wheel pads are simply mounted on an arbor directly to the motor shaft.

Somewhere, in the Mess and Piles, I have a period printing of one of Springfield Armory's barrel polishing machines but I do not recall where I put it. Sorry.
Ah, to polish a barrel with a steam powered, buffalo hide belt driven, period machine under gas lights.... ;)

Curt
Who was a gun builder once upon a time Mess

[Rob]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

Some tidbits:

Eli Whitney Museum:

http://www.eliwhitney.org/arms.htm

Development of American Machine Tools:

http://www.schillerinstitute.org/educ/hist/devo_machine_tool.html

Virginia Armory (Richmond Enquirer, October 11th, 1861):

http://www.mdgorman.com/Written%20Accounts/Enquirer/1861/richmond_enquirer_10111861.htm

[reddcorp]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

Some good advice.

You may wish to buy some crocus cloth, which is a very fine form of sandpaper often used by machinist to polish metals.
You can't get it a Lowe's or Home Depot, but most real hardware stores carry it.
And, I've seen some on-line as well.

A.Redd

[Rebel Yell1863]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

In the field I use brick dust and oil on a rag, or the cold ash from the fire. To take the rust off from the dew.

[ooticamitica]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

you can lightly/carefully file any modern markins off the barrel, in order to get a shine I use green/blue/grey scotch brite to get off rust than i use 13 micron sand paper followed by 8 micron sand paper, it makes the barrel armory brite and works great!!

[Bill]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

This may sound weird, but before sanding or filing a stamping off, lightly tap it with the round end of a ball-peen hammer. A stamp doesn't remove metal, it just pushes it around. Tapping the stamping with the hammer moves at least some of the metal back where it came from and reduces the amount of sanding and/or filing necessary to remove the mark.

I've had good luck removing the majority of a stamping with a fine jeweler's file and finishing up, using increasingly fine wet or dry sandpaper and oil. Start with #300 and finish with #600 or #1,000. Oh, yeah, if you are removing the marks on a rifle barrel, be sure to follow the curve of the barrel, so you don't end up with a flat spot.

[dclarry]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

Once again, thanks for the continued flow of advice. I like to learn, and the responses are great.

I have been looking locally for crocus cloth and micron-rated sanding films, but may have to order them online. The usual wet/dry 3M paper is readily availble out to 600 grit, which I believe is close to a 13-micron paper. I have belayed getting a power polisher for now, but may revisit that. I may have a few projects to work on, including this spanking new barrel and re-working an old barrel, and the polisher may come in handy.

The advice on lightly tapping on the barrel marks to fill in the marks before filing is excellent. Same with ideas on field maintenance - I can imagine an NCO berating a soldier for not keeping his weapon bright.

When I get off my duff and get on with this in earnest, I'll take some 'before' and 'after' pics and post them. Maybe together we can come up with a solid thread on de-marking and polishing barrels. A colleague and I will be working on identical barrels, and we can even compare different techniques.

[tarheeltexan]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

I'm very interested in this for a couple of reasons. For one, it seems the dominant opinion here that the original soldiers did take the metal back to a "bright."

As the owner of an original Enfield 3 bander, I am figgering I would still be permitted entry to the field if my smoke pole is less than "polished bright?"

[Rob]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

I'd leave the Enfield alone. For further discussion, see

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/1864/enf/enfblue.htm

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Polishing new barrels bright

Hallo!

"...it seems the dominant opinion here that the original soldiers did take the metal back to a 'bright.'"

No, not really as it was a very, very rare exception for soldiers to do so.

IMHO, if the research and documentation shows that the unit, time, and place of one's impression had either armory struck bright or even field struck bright Enfields, then they should be "struck bright."
Otherwise, they should be in their "factory colors."

Others' mileage may vary...

Curt