So I thought I would share how I browned the barrel on my TC Renegade.
First things first I am not made of money so my hobies have to be done as inexpensively as posible so that I can get the OK of the CFO ( a.k.a my wife
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When I came back from my last deployment in Feb. of 2007 I purchased a TC Renegade kit from one of the members here as a project for my boys and I. The barrel and all the metal work was in the white so I had to decide on a finish for the barrel. Since it is a ML I didnt want a blue finish so I started looking around at the browning kits out there on the market. Most of them were in the $15 and up range not including tthe shipping. Since I still wanted money for powder, caps, balls, and patches I started looking for a cheaper way to get the job done.
One day while at Micheals( an arts and crafts store) I was looking at the decritive metal finishes they sell and there it was
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Here was a rusting solution that had the same basic chemicals as the stuff from the gun specific folks and it was $4.50 for 4oz's SWEAT. So I grabed a bottel and headed home. The directions said to wait 24hours between aplications to get the best results. I cleaned the barrel with windex to remove all the oil and dirt from the metal. Then I hund it up from the ceiling on my garage with bailing wire hooked threw the underlug. Next I made a tent using a sheet and put a humidifier under it. I then applied some of the solution to a cotton ball and wiped it on to the metal making sure that I didnt miss anything and left it over night. I applied a coat every day for 3 days. After this time it had browned to the shade I was looking for. At this point I cleaned the barrel with warm soapy water to remove any ttraces of the solution then I put it in the oven @ 200 degrees to dry out the barrel and prepair it for the next step. Once the metal was nice and hot I rubbed it down with 0000 steel wool to remove any scaling that might of ocured then while still hot I gave it a rub down with a paper towel soaked in canola oil. I repeated the heating and oil rub 3 times it was alot like seasoning cast iron and completley stopped the rusting process.
So far the finish has held up well it is resitant to scratches and looks darn good if I do say so myself.
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please excuse my messy back patio kids love to throw stuff every where.
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