After almost 3 years of lurking and a post or two I decided it was time to get a flintlock to play with. I went with the Lyman GPR flintlock kit in .50 cal. I'd thought long and hard about all the other options I've seen discussed here but money and skill wise I'm pretty sure I made the right choice. Anyway, I intend to use BC Plumb Brown to finish the metal on this rifle. I recently refinished an old CVA pistol that I had built almost 30 years ago with the Plumb brown and I like the way it came out. I used a propane torch to heat up the short little barrel of the pistol and an infrared non contact thermometer to get to temp and that worked well. My main question is how do those that do it heat up a long barrel in order to use the plumb Brown? What do you use for a heat source? Do you do it a section at a time or???

Thanks
Larry

I tried numerous times, but was never successful. The barrel was never an even color.
I started using a cold brown solution over 20 years ago for the barrels and never looked back.

I still use Plum Brown for the small parts.

A pair of heatguns for paint stripping might work, I have also found the LMF cold brown to work a lot better for me.

Another vote for rust browning it instead of Plum brown.
Ken

Looks like I'll be ordering some LMF browning solution. Thanks guys.

Larry,
I've used both Laurel Mountain Forge and Birchwood Casey. I like both, and have had no problems with either. I've done a 42" barrel with the BC, using a torch, and doing short sections. I just heated one section, treated it, and moved on up the barrel. That's just one coat, and as noted it will be blotchy at that phase. You do maybe three or four coats, and let it sit a while. I like to then warm up the whole barrel and oil it, with whatever I've got around--Wonder Lube would be great, or (gasp) WD-40, or gun oil. The point is, if it's warm, it helps kill the browning (which you can also do with baking soda and water) and it even helps smooth it all out a bit, in my mind anyway.
The advantage of Birchwood Casey is that you can get your barrel done in an hour or two if you're anxious to be done, instead of several hours or days.

Dick

Larry,i don't have alot of experiance building guns,but i have done a couple guns in the white,i've used bc hot and cold,and the lmf left to sit,for a long barrel i passs a propane torch over the hole barrel then wipe down with a rag fairly wet w solution,BUT BEWARE OF THE FUMES !!!!if you put enough coats on it you will get a realy dark brown almost black color,i also put it on cold for a really nice pateina look,the lmf is the easiest way,wipe on and let set,espesilly in the summer,and i think lmf has a de-greaser in it also,which helps alot.