FN 1903 Browning - Before and After

Some before and after pics of an FN 1903 Browning restoration.

Hard to believe the pictures are of the same pistol.
Could you tell us what techniques or tricks of the trade you used to achieve this great result ?

Looks real good... Hot blue I assume.? If so did you send it out.?

I inherited the pistol from my uncle. When I first saw it, I almost turned it down because it was in such bad shape. Then I thought, why not make it a project gun - what do I have to lose. So I did 100% of the work myself. It is hand polished with wet/dry automotive paper using mineral spirits to keep the paper clean. I started with 220 grit and finished with 400 grit. I blued it using the "slow rust blue" process using Pilkington's Rust Blue. I used my screened in porch in the summer Virginia humidity as my rusting "box". It took about 8 iterations to blue it. The only parts I had to replace were the firing pin spring (it was broken into 4 pieces) and the missing lanyard ring. I got these parts from Sweden from the original factory that made a Husqvarna copy of this pistol. I found some 9mm Browning Long ammo and shot it. It is a great gun to shoot. I took detailed notes on the process. I can post them if desired.

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Nice job! Are you sure it is the same pistol? I think you have a future in doing rehab.

Wow, have to give that Plikington's a try very even results.
Slow blueing was how it was done before the advent of salts I believe.

Here are a few more before and after pics. Look close at the pics of the barrel bushing. Look for the imperfection/dent and you will see it is the same pistol.

Here are some notes on the process I used to restore the FN 1903 Browning:


Disassembly – The FN 1903 Browning that I restored was not operable when I got it. So it needed complete disassembly. Follow the disassembly instructions for your gun. If complex and somewhat rare like this one, take pictures along the way. Putting this gun back together required a lot of web research to learn the reassembly tricks. The pics helped. I removed the rear sight from the slide dovetail. Not doing so would have caused problems for the bluing because oil trapped in the dovetail would cause problems for the bluing process.

Metal refinishing – This took the most amount of time and is essential to achieving good results AND and operable gun. The goal is to polish the metal to a finished 320 or 400 grit finish with no pits. If you take off too much metal the clearance between the parts will be excessive making for a sloppy action or make the rear sight loose in its dovetail in the slide. You also don’t want to take off the markings. I used wet/dry automotive paper in 150, 220, 320, and 400 grit. Using finer than 400 grit actually inhibits the rust bluing process. Alternate the sanding direction of each grit so that the 400 grit is in the final finish direction. I used mineral spirits to wet the sandpaper and keep the grit clean. Use wooden sanding blocks to keep the sandpaper flat so that no waves are formed in the metal. I made special sanding blocks to fit various parts and areas. I used dowels to sand some of the round parts like inside the trigger guard. To clean up the screws with damaged slots, i cleaned up the slot with a gunsmith's file and then put the screws in my drill press. As the screw spun, I polished the head with emory paper.

Metal degreasing – This is critical. Any oil, even from your hands with cause problems for the bluing. Degrease the by boiling them in a TSP/water solution. Boiling loosens up the dried grease and oil. From this point on, you always handle the parts with vinyl gloves or metal tongs. Clean the TSP residue off of the parts with acetone.

Slow Rust Bluing – I used Pilkington’s Slow Rust Blue and followed the manufacturer’s instructions. Again, never touch the parts with your bare hands and keep them away from any oil. To apply the Pilkington’s, I used new cotton gun patches and cotton Q-tips to get into tight places. You never rub the blue back and forth as this removes the previous bluing. You just dampen the patch so it will not puddle on the metal, then you make a smooth wipe on the parts. Then you put the parts in a humid environment. I used our screened in porch in the summer Virginia humidity. It worked great. After a few hours, the parts turn red with rust. Next you boil DISTILLED water in a stainless steel pot/tank. Don’t use your good cooking pots for this, it will discolor the stainless steel. Boil the parts for 20 minutes. As they boil, the parts turn from rust red to black. Take the parts out. If they don’t dry immediately, then dry them with a hair dryer. You don’t want any water spots on the metal. The black on the metal is fuzzy like lamp black. Next, wearing latex gloves, you “card” the black metal with a degreased carding brush or wheel. I used a hand carding brush. You can also use 0000 steel wool if it is degreased. As you card off the black you are polishing the metal. The first coat will be very uneven, but don’t worry about it. On subsequent passes the Pilkington’s works stronger on lighter areas and eventually evens the bluing out. If you apply a coating late in the day then let the parts rust overnight. It took 7 or 8 coats to get the depth of satin bluing that I desired. You can reuse the distilled water, but you will need to add some because you will lose some to the boiling. After you have completed the last iteration, then you need stop/kill the bluing process. After the last carding, immerse the parts in oil. There is a lot written about what kind of oil to use. Some say used black motor oil, some say gun oil, others say boiled linseed oil. But nowhere did I see any rationale for why to used one over the other. So I put the question to a friend of mine with a background in biochemistry. Here was his answer: ” Linseed oil soaks into the microscopic cracks in the metal and polymerizes when exposed to air, sort of like when you mix the two parts to an epoxy resin. It forms a cross polymer that is more durable. Mineral oil soaks into the metal layer and then slowly soaks out of the metal layer as gravity pulls it down. When you oil a garden tool, then it protects it from rust until the oil flows away and rusting begins.” For this reason, I used boiled linseed oil.

Assembly and Lubrication – reassembly the gun and lubricate as you would for shooting or storage.

cwbuff,

Looks just like the day it was made and nice to see someone else who "rust blues" , I recomend anyone who has some scrap metal bits lying around to have a go at rust blueing, you can use just table salt to have a go (approx 10% solution), best salt is Salammoniac ( approx 2% solution ).

An excellent book on the subject by R.H Angier , Firearm blueing and Browning.