[Buck]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post. Love the forum, super cool.

Ok, so here it is.

Basically what I am doing is trying to invent Different unique chemical finishes to turn the exterior of steel, brass, copper, aluminum, common materials different colors. I am most interested in reactions that will get steel to its black oxide state.

To Blacken Steel, I have the typical "Gun Bluing" Selenium dioxide method. This works ok.. not super impressed. Its almost gold sometimes.. I am also aware of the sodium nitrate and sodium hydroxide High temperature bath method. This works awesome,  However this is impractical for larger pieces.

I have done some experimenting with Tannic acid for this use, but have had limited results. Its from some article I found on the internet about steel darkening


Any Ideas or information regarding the matter would be much appreciated.



Cheers


-Buck

[Arkcon]

We've had a couple of threads on the topic of gun barrel finishes.  Check put this guy's posts as an example: http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=151711

[Buck]

Awesome, Ill check it out.

Sorry I posted in the wrong Category, I was trying to decide which one fit before


-Buck

[billnotgatez]

The term Patina came to mind for me although I have only used it on bronze and silver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patina#Applied_patina
The article above mentions

Knife collectors that own "carbon steel" blades sometimes force a patina onto the blade to help protect it and give it a more personalized look. This can be done using various chemicals and substances such as muriatic acid or apple cider vinegar. It can also be done by sticking the blade into any acidic vegetable or fruit such as a potato or apple.

I also did GOOGLE
Patina for iron
and got lots of hits