I bought an incomplete Kongsberg M 1849/1855 from 1858 and wonder what type of "blueing" was used on the barrel and action. It looks like a red/brown color, but under the barrelbands there seems to be nothing. Just paint or a chemical process like blueing?
The browning of the kammerlader rifles are described on page 94 in the book Norske militære og sivile kammerladningsgeværer. There were several different rust browning methods in use. Modern browning solutions, such as Laurel Mountain Forge Barrel Brown & Degreaser, can be used to obtain a similar look as the original browned barrels.
If you look at page 2 in this thread: https://forum.svartkrutt.net/index.php?topic=24466.0 you can see how forum member Anvil browned his kammerlader barrel.
Hi,
This is the barrel of my Kammerlader. The colour could be rust or it could be from the browning process. But underneath the barrelband it looks "in the white" to mee. I have seen a few others who also look in the white. Were all Kammerladers browned, or did exceptions to the rule exist?
I am not an expert on "kammerlader" rifles, but to the best of my knowledge they were released from the factories in "browned" condition. A model 1849 would have looked like this example from the Armed Forces Museum collection in Oslo. You say your model 1849/55 is from 1858, but that's not possible. The model 1849 was made by Kongsberg, Crause in Germany and Francotte in Belgium. Production at Kongsberg commenced in 1855. Could it possibly be that the date on your rifle is poorly stamped, and that it's 1853. If not, you probably have a model 1855. Regarding your question whether your rifle is rusty or if it has original browning, we should look at how these rifles were cleaned by the soldiers. Here is an excerpt from the Norwegian small arms manual of 1861. "Til Pudsingen bruges fiinreven Muursteen, ---". ( Pulverized brick is used for cleaning). This is a harsh method and numerous scrubbings probably removed the original browning.(//)