Anyone ever brown steel?  I haven't heard anyone mention it here.  This is the finish used on traditional muzzleloaders, before blueing was used.
Very hard to photo, it's deep dark brown and should be very tough.  I have done a few muzzleloaders and decided to try on a hunting knife.
Steel is o1 and a 4" blade.  My first silver wire inlay also, on brazilian cherry and nickel silver pins.

You like the brown or not?  Maybe there is a reason I haven't seen anyone else do it.

Thanks, Dan

I like it a lot - give us a litle tutoral?  What is the process?  Heat and.... ??

Bob Urban

Nice looking knife - by the way

Looks GREAT !!!Colors match very well. I like the inlay too. Oh yeah I wanna know how to brown too!  :D

I don't know why more don't use it. I like it.
Nice job all the way around.
I have a 200 page book entitled: Firearm Bluing and Browning that was written in 1936.
If I could even understand what it said I might do some of it!

Really nice Dan! How's it done?

Very nice job there Dan!

I don't know why it's not done more often.  It is a pretty tough finish.  The instructions on my bottle of the stuff say to heat the steel until you can still just barely hold it, then wipe the solution on with a rag.

Oh yeah, Nice Job!!  

Looks good Dan, thanks for posting      

Very Nice Dan!!!  

Very nice look to it. It looks like a working knife for sure.

Like Jeremy said, it is a very tough finish, and not hard to do, just takes time.
No heat needed with this!
Laurel Mountain Forge - Barrel Brown and Degreaser...do a search and you will find it in muzzleloading supply catalogs and maybe Midway USA.  Comes with directions, a little bottle will do a bunch of knives.

works best with a sandblasted blade or scotchbrite finish, polished is not good for this.  This is actually a process of rusting your blade, with a turbocharger.

Apply solution with a patch, give it time (several hours).  works faster with humid climates.  After several hours, take a rough cloth or course steel wool, and lighly buff off the rust.  Do not try to get it back to original condition.
Repeat the process.  
(Warning, the first time you do this, it will SCARE you.  It is butt ugly for the first several coats and you will think you have ruined a good blade).
After repeating this process 6-8 times, the finish should be looking pretty good, the more you do it the more even it will get.
You are done when you get a fairly even brown finish.  
Finally, I soak in hot baking soda/water for a half hour or so to stop the rusting.  Dry, lightly scour with mild scotch brite or steel wool a final time.  
Traditionally, boiled linseed oil is wiped on and also happens to be a nice finish for the wood.

One more thing, if you are making a full tang knife, have your handle finished before doing this, as you will not want to sand away the browned finish.  

You can probably see better photos of this process if you just do a search, as well as final finish photos.
Dan

Nice!  I considered trying it.  I think you can find it in Brownells catalog also.


IN GOD WE TRUST

I've seen this done more with tomahawks but not very often with knife blades. I would imagine that it was probably doen a lot in the old days. I don't see why the "old-timers" wouldn't have used the same finish on their knife blades that they used for their gun barrels and hawks.

BTW, nice inlay work as well!

Real nice Dan!

I have an old bottle of Plumbrown that's pretty much useless now (all dried out)

Dan, with the stuff you're using you can put the steel in boiling water in between coats to get a blacker finish rather than the brown, right?  It's been awhile since I've seen that stuff.

Really nice finish Dan!

Jeremy, never tried the boiling water thing.  The brown is do dark now it is almost black.
Thanks, Dan

Outstanding work Dan.Super nice job...bd

Very nice on the wire work and the browning!!  I have four knives that will be getting browned this weekend.  I use the birchwood casey stuff but its a pain to re-brown (after some hard use) because you have to keep the handle in water so you dont disrupt the epoxy on the scales.  this stuff you are using just might be the ticket since it goes on cool.  Thanks for sharing.

Nathan