Posted by David Williamson on June 18, 2016, 8:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Project Gun"
Hi Doug, first everything moveable was taken off. After the barrels are sanded and rusted for the second time, they are then dipped in boiling water for 5 minutes. This turns the red oxide to black oxide. If not boiled the finish would be "browned" like a lot of English guns were done. The carding is to remove some of the scale left from the transformation. Some people use a fine wire wheel, I like using the green Scotchbrite as I have more control. Those barrels were only rusted 3 times and boiled twice, so they were only carded twice. You can give them as many rustings and boilings as you like. This is only the second set of steel barrels that I have rust blued, all the others were Damascus and they were rust blued and then etched in a ferric chloride/water solution, They are also carded.
I learned about how to do it from a Dr. Gaddy that posted on the Double Gun Forum, he gave very good instructions on how to do it. He has since passed and I was lucky to have copied his technique.