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