I also removed varnish from stock ,replaced hand guard and gave it an oil finish.

Very Pretty!  Now how does it shoot?

Awesome job on the finishing!  Can't wait to hear how she does once you get her sighted in... 

Oh, and foaming wasp killer works wonders.  My son calls it "Instant Death!"  LOL

      This is the first time that I've worked with rust bluing.After learning that this was the process and its history I was determined this was how I was going to finish my new Krag. After hours of working on a plan to do this project with a way to boil the barrel I started following line on steam to convert the rust.There are also a lot of recipes out there but decided to go with Brownells classic rust blue.This is what I put together as odd as it looks it could not have worked better.                                                                               (You need to Login to view media files and links)                                                                                (You need to Login to view media files and links)                                                                                (You need to Login to view media files and links)                                                                                                               

    Top Dean,after researching original finishes I found that rust blue would have still been the most common refinish in the late 1800's. With much digging through old articles and web sights most describe using a tray long enough to boil barrel or barreled action in ,at least one said you could just pour boiling water over the parts but then I saw how steam would have been used originally. From there I found where someone wrote about using PVC pipe fitted over a pan of boiling water.                                                                                 While most small parts can be boiled on top of the kitchen stove,for the barrel I first found a pan that my wife was going to toss because of chipped porcelin.my first thought was to cut a piece of plywood to fit which should work for the short term then use a piece of 4'' schedule 40 PVC long enough to fit the barrel in.Note that thin wall pipe will start to melt,my biggest mistake but once changed worked great.The part used to adapt the pipe to my bucket or what ever cover you use is a toilet flange.The cover can be anything,I found that a little back pressure seemed to even the conversion faster.Also by leaving it uncovered and just warming the water it made a perfect humidifier for the rusting process.                                                                               What ever you do don't forget to protect the bore.If you want any more help just contact me,I can probably find the bracket I made to hang the barreled action straight in the pipe and take a picture of it.I was able to devote a lot of time that I couldn't normally but I was confined to the house after surgery.                                                                                John.

sounds simple enough, better than what I did when i was 16 with my mussle loader, I used a propane torch on the barrel to heat it up, and then applied  the antique stain to the barrel. Cnsidering I was 16 and never done it before or anything like it it turned out very well. Make it look may years older that it is.