Horace Burbeary Bayonet Browner

[deano]

Hello gents, thought you would like to know of one man that used to help make your favourite things.

He was Horace Burbeary of Sheffield. He worked for Sanderson Bros. & Newbould here in Sheffield. On 19/2/18 he was mobilised as # 252969 Driver RFA 88th Batt.

He was a 'Bayonet Browner', this involved the metal parts being placed in a vat of distilled water, phosphoric acid and iron filings and then boiled.

Then the parts were rinsed, quick dried and then dipped in oil.

His pension papers survive on Ancestry.

Dean.

[shippingsteel]

That's an interesting snippet, thanks for posting. I believe the "browning" is the same process we today know as 'bluing' and produced the blued bayonet pommels, etc.

It was only done over the hilt, crossguard and blade up to a certain point. Most examples seen today have the bluing partially worn off. But mainly intact on this P1907.!

Cheers, S>S

[KevinBattle]

Thanks, added to my "Learn something new each day" stockpile!

i

Coslettise; to protect (iron or steel) from corrosion by forming a coating of phosphate on the surface of the metal. So Coslettised,

Coslettiser, Coslettising. From the name of Thomas Watts Coslett, an English chemist who devised the process in 1907. Iron or steel items were immersed in a near boling solution of ferrous iron phosphate for about 30 minutes, the solution being slightly acidic in order for dissolution of the iron phosphate.

If the process only became used in 1907, there can't be too many "browners" by 1911

[trajan]

Nice one! The German literature immediately post-GW refers to it as "browning" also - "brunierien" or something similar (don't have the texts to hand right now!). Note that our GWF colleague wrote a few bits on this also - see: http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=194834&page=7entry2251603

SS - one of your Aussie HQ's I suspect?

Trajan