Roast Barley and Black Patent are about the same colour (
Good read in BYO), they are both roasted until they are partly charcoal. The roasting process is very similar, one is made from raw barley, the other from malt. The term patent applies to a type of drum roaster developed to stop the grain catching on fire and to roast it evenly (which was a big problem with earlier flat bed roasters, in 1817 Daniel Wheeler was granted a patient on his new drum roaster, giving us the term Patent Malt.
The same type of drum roaster is now used for making most darker grains, mainly because they give a very even result.
Zorco, I bet one of the things your coffee roasting friend isn't doing is try to make really good coffee out of Vietnamese Robusta, you cant. Which is my point.
To make good coffee you need good beans - same with barley and malt in brewing.
I said in my first post that I understand the interest in making malt, I have been in several maltings, and even more coffee roasters, have had a long hard look at one here in Newcastle that uses a fluidised air bed (Sprocket). Baking, coffee roasting, brewing, malting... are all both arts and sciences and fascinating processes.
I doubt any home maltster will get the consistency nor be able to make the range that a specialist commercial maltster can achieve, without making a huge investment in equipment, knowledge and time. Nor will you save a bomb if that is your motivation. If you are doing it out of interest, big ups, it's great to learn.
Mark