18th Century Stock and Metal Finishing

[82Rigger]

Chili suggested this thread, so I'm gonna start it, and ya'll can jump in with your comments.

I've only built three muzzle loaders from kits, so I'll share what I found out while finishing them.

STOCK FINISHING

On my Kentucky rifle (pictured in the other thread) I decided that I wanted to finish the wood the way a gunmaker would have done it in, say, 1775 Boston or Philadelphia.
Those were large cities, even then, but I bet there was no Sherwin Williams to go into and buy a can of walnut or cherry stain.

I built this rifle long before the internet came along, but I remembered reading a story about a settler sitting in his log cabin and finishing his gunstock using wild berries for color and soot from the fireplace to darken the color. Linseed oil was available back then.

I used holly berries for the red color because I had them growing in the yard, but I imagine any kind of red berries will work. I squeezed the innards out of a bunch of berries 'cause the red color I wanted was in the skins. Mixed the berry skins with the oil and heated on the stove until the color leached out into the oil. When I got a fairly "solid" color in the oil, I let it cool and strained it through cheesecloth to get rid of most all of the berry skins.

I don't have a fireplace, so I took a kerosene hurricane lamp and turned the wick up so that it gave off black smoke. I held a Bowie knife blade in the flame til it had a thick layer of soot on it, and just scraped the soot off the blade into the colored oil and stirred it into the oil. Did this several times until I had a deep red color, but I wish I had darkened the oil a little more...it looked darker in the can than it does on the stock.

After all the above, it's just a matter of hand rubbing the oil into the stock, letting it dry between coats, until you have a nice, blotch-free finish on the wood.

This was mostly trial and error (and guesswork), but for the first attempt I think the stock came out pretty nice. Who knows? Maybe 200 years from now, my stock will have aquired that beautiful rich patina that you see on 18th century stocks.

METAL FINISHING

18th century gun barrels were not blued...the were "browned" to ward off rust. Done properly, the resulting color is what I call a "light chocolate", and is smooth and even all over the barrel.
The brown color is actually a layer of very fine rust on the surface, which helps prevent oxygen from getting to the bare steel and rusting it further.

I dont really know how browning was done by 18th century gunmakers, but here's the way I browned my barrel:

First I degreased the barrel to remove all traces of oil or grease. Then I attached a string through the breech block screw hole so that I could hang the barrel vertically. I hung it in my bathroom from a high coat hook so that it was off the floor and nothing was touching it except the string. I placed an old rag underneath the barrel to catch any "drippings".

Then I filled an empty Windex spray bottle with vinegar and adjusted the spray to a very fine mist. I then misted the barrel all over with vinegar and then filled the bathroom with steam by running the shower hot. I steamed the bathroom twice a day.

After a couple days the barrel will have a coat of very fine red rust...not the damaging scale rust from water, but very fine...almost like dust. I rubbed the barrel with a piece of burlap to remove excess rust. I went through this cycle of misting with vinegar and steaming several times until I had an even color all over the barrel.

Then an application of oil to the barrel will change the rusted surface to a chocolate brown color.

[chilidog]

Rigger,
I've heard the term "plumb-browning." Is that the same thing? The picture below is a CVA rifle I bought because the price was right. It has a brown finish.

Chilidog

[82Rigger]

Chili,

I don't know much about plumb browning, except that it is a slow-rust process.

It sounds like that's the term for what I did, since it is a rust process and the barrel was hung on a string like a plumber's bob.

Your rifle looks like a Hawken. What caliber is it? Does it shoot good?

[colmurph]

There's also an "Old Timers" way of taking a straight grained Maple stock and putting an artificial stripe on it. The old gunsmiths would disolve iron filings in muriatic acid and then paint the mixture in stripes on the stock. After a week or so the disolved iron would have seeped into the grain of the wood, the acid would have crystalized on the outside to be wiped off, and the iron in the wood would begin to rust to give the artificial fiddleback maple look. You can substitute steel wool for the iron filings and muriatic acid is just sulphuric acid that you can find in an auto battery or you can still buy it as Muriatic Acid in a hardware store.

[chilidog]

Rigger,
The box called it a "CVA Classic Mountain Rifle." It's a 45 cal. I'm not a very good shot with anything, so I can't really tell you how good it is. It sure feels good in your hands though. It was well worth the money. The store was selling it for half price because the hammer wouldn't stay cocked. I took it home and backed out the set screw by the trigger and it has worked fine ever since.


Chilidog

[82Rigger]

Chili,

From your description it sounds like nothing was wrong with your rifle. Sounds like somebody ran the trigger adjustment screw in too far and the hammer notch wouldn't engage.

"Hawken" and "Mountain Rifle" just generally describe a basic style. They may even be the same. My Thompson/Center .45 Hawken has a 28 inch barrel and is about 48 inches overall length.

Col Murph,

Another way that I heard of making a tiger stripe stock is to wrap the stock with heavy cotton cord with the turns touching and then run a blow torch over the wrapped stock. The flames penetrate to the wood between the coils of the cord and leave a tiger stripe look.

[chilidog]

Rigger,
Yup, there weren't nothin wrong with that rifle. I guessed that the name was for marketing purposes. CVA had a mountain rifle, and a "classic" mountain rifle. The difference was the german silver trim. It looks like brushed aluminum to me. What is german silver anyway? What does this look like to you?

Chilidog

[chilidog]

More "german silver."

Chilidog

[82Rigger]

Chili,

"German silver" is a term used to describe various alloys of copper, zinc, and nickel. It has no silver in it. It is used for decorative and trim purposes.

And yup, that looks like German silver on your rifle.

You got a nice lookin' piece there. And it sounds like the price was right.
It looks exactly like my T/C Hawken except mine has a blued barrel.

[chilidog]

Rigger,
Thanks for the compliments on the rifle. I always considered it as my cheap rifle, but it is the one that gets used the most.

Now, back to what you started this thread for: I have something similar to your T/C Hawken. It is a T/C Renegade, 54 cal cap rifle. It has a mark on the stock. It's not a scratch that you can feel with your fingernail, just a streak down the stock that looks like white paint. Can this be rubbed out, or will I have to refinish the whole stock? I'm not sure what it is or how it got there. It's another one that the price was right and I was weak.

Chilidog