staining or coloring steel -- myArmoury.com

Nathan Gilleland · Posted: Sat 12 Sep, 2009 7:03 pm Post subject: staining or coloring steel

I was looking online for inspiration for a new project, and my eye was attracted by the red color of the steel on the Eragon movie sword replica.

My question is this: how would you go about coloring steel on a knife or sword blade? I'm looking for some basic colors. Red, Blue, Green, Black.

My budget is next to nothing, so I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit of quality in the finished product. Any suggestions? Would some type of liquid dye work? Something that will stain the steel without instantaneously rusting it beyond recognition or bad enough that by the time I buff the rust off I'll have buffed the stain off as well?

J.D. Crawford · Posted: Sat 12 Sep, 2009 7:31 pm Post subject:

The only thing I know about is gun bluing, which is cheap and will blacken carbon steel. I haven't used it myself but coincidentally was planning to pick some up tomorrow and give it a try on some hilt furniture.

Bill Love · Posted: Sat 12 Sep, 2009 7:50 pm Post subject: Coloring steel

There are a few custom gunsmiths that do Titanium Nitride coatings in different colors. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I've seen some pretty wild finishes-

Allen Jones · Posted: Sat 12 Sep, 2009 8:12 pm Post subject:

With out being able to see a non promo pic of the sword it is tough to be certain but I bet it is just a red dye in the lacquer they use.

Jean Thibodeau · Posted: Sat 12 Sep, 2009 8:16 pm Post subject:

Well there are browning solutions as well as bluing ones but I don't know where you would get some, but places specializing in DIY muzzle loading kits may have something for browning as period muskets where often browned.

Yellow mustard is something to try but do a test on a scrap piece of steel first. ( Seems to give a reddish tinge on some steels).

Oh, whatever you use different steels might react differently and give you slightly different colours.

Do a search on the site and you will find various Topic threads dealing with antiquing steel. ( One can go for light staining with or without pitting or deeper effects if one wants to make something look like a relic ).

And then there is also this article: http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_antique.html

Nathan Gilleland · Posted: Sat 12 Sep, 2009 8:22 pm Post subject:

For those of you who are visual, (like me) here is a picture of what I'm talking about.

Nathan Gilleland · Posted: Sat 12 Sep, 2009 8:25 pm Post subject:

How would one lacquer a sword or knife blade? How well does lacquer hold up to use? Is it something that I could do myself in my backyard? How expensive would it be?

I don't mean to spam the post with questions, but I am very curious, and I would like to make the dangerous step into the world of blade smithing. Eek!

Ken Speed · Posted: Sun 13 Sep, 2009 4:26 am Post subject:

"How would one lacquer a sword or knife blade? How well does lacquer hold up to use? Is it something that I could do myself in my backyard? How expensive would it be?"

My experience with finishing has much more to do with wood than with metal but I think I can answer your question.

Lacquer, unless a retarder is added to slow drying time, is formulated to be sprayed and to dry quickly to prevent contamination from dust and the like so you would be spraying a finish on your sword blade. It is likely that you would want to start with a suitable primer to help the top coat adhere to the metal and to improve the quality of the finish so you would be spraying multiple coats of finish.

I doubt that anybody would suggest that a sword with a painted finish be used for anything other than as a wall hanger. Car finishes are extremely durable and look at how scrapes and abrasions mar them.

Spray finishes come in all price ranges from aerosol cans to very technical and specialized coatings. Most newer paint spray guns that I'm familiar with are called HVLP (high volume low pressure) guns, some can work from their own dedicated compressor others need a separate air supply.

I suspect that some of the blued or blackened hilt components that are offered are electro plated but even that wouldn't do for a sword blade that was to be used for anything other than display.

Ken

R D Moore · Posted: Sun 13 Sep, 2009 9:24 am Post subject:

Nathan, try Dixie Gun Works or even Brownell's for browning solution. Vary the time in solution to obtain the hue you are satisfied with. This will require some experimentation so you'll need some test pieces of steel- 1085 isn't too expensive for a 2 x 1/4 x 12" bar. You may want to email the folks at Brownell's for advice, they're very helpful. I don't know of anything that will oxidize steel to a "red" color, though. You could paint it with Dycum but that is just a surface coating.

http://www.dixiegunworks.com/advanced_search_...7&y=13

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/cid=45/k=/t=P/...___Coating

http://www.speedymetals.com/default.aspx

János Sibinger · Posted: Sun 13 Sep, 2009 10:08 am Post subject:

Colouring steel could be done in two ways, according to my best knowledge.
The first is to paint or dye it with somekind of chemic.
The other method is to run a heat treating process.
The second one is going to change the properities of the blade (how hard, how flexible and rigid would be it)
During the heat treating process the iron will be yellow, than brown, red, purple like, purple dark blue, blue (the ideal temperature for blades and other objects wch have to be sharp and strong at the same time) than it becomes greyish green.
(This heat training is usually being applied after the whole piece was heated red hot than cooled down quickly. if you drop the piece after this, it easily could shatter.)
Tere are other methods for making iron brownish, mainly used by gunsmiths.
I hope I was able to help.
John