Anyone has an idea of how to darken the colour of stainless steel please?

IIRC ,one of our members talked about putting stainless steel into a standard bluing solution.It doesn't 'blue' it in the normal sense but does turn it into a darker matt grey.

If you can remember the process, I would appreciate hearing it.

Look into coatings, such as KG coat, it won't be blued but will look good.

Bluing is of course a controlled rusting process, so stainless steel won't blue correctly.

Aaron

Saeed, I can't say that this is a good idea but since you enjoy experimenting I'll rat out on myself...When I was young and dumb (as opposed to being only older now) I cleaned a neglected stainless blackpowder pistol by soaking it in Drano (a caustic lye-based drain cleaner with other really bad stuff in it). It got really REALLY clean but the Drano completely blackened the steel and I remember having to polish it off with emory cloth. Who knows? Maybe I missed a new process for the indusrty?

Saeed

I have not used it myself, but Brownells sells what they call Oxynate No. 84, which they claim is a bluing salt that will blue Stainless Steels. You might want to call Brownells technical folks and ask them more about it.

22WRF

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Anyone has an idea of how to darken the colour of stainless steel please?

Saeed,
I like the results of the Wilson Gun Kote type finish. My gunsmith does this sort of process.
It is a baked on finish that has a molybdenum sulfide content is all I know. It seems to be very hard and I have not scratched any of it off any of several rifles.

This makes the chrome-moly action match the stainlessbarrel. Matte black and matte olive drab are the ones I like.

I will see if anyone else has anything better, but this stuff is excellent.

Blacken the stainless, and paint the fiberglass brown and the critters will never know the difference, is what I always say.

NYLITE is a very nice and durable matte black finish. It also slicks out the action as well.

Saeed,
We have many customers who want SS barrels and a black finish. To address this we offer black chrome plating. We do not do it ourselves, but send it to Accurate Plating and Weaponry. Here is the link to there website.
http://www.apwcogan.com/black_chrome_plating.htm

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Brownells stainless salts do work, and there are a few people around that do the work with great success.

Chuck

Saeed

I've seen pictures of that 375-404 of yours, and if the gun you are working on is going to be treated like the 375-404 I'm thinking 99 cent flat black Krylon will be right up your ally.

Shawn

Saeed,

I have examined custom rifles with Cerakote
as applied by Fit $ Duty. They looked very nice. I am getting ready to have them do a rifle.

http://fit4duty.us

jim

Saeed,
I have heard that there is a guy from Spokane who is using the Brownells salts for stainless and it does work. The result is more of a black but I have no first hand experience with it. I believe Bill Soverns does. I will give him a call and ask him to respond.

quote:

Originally posted by bluetick:
Saeed

I've seen pictures of that 375-404 of yours, and if the gun you are working on is going to be treated like the 375-404 I'm thinking 99 cent flat black Krylon will be right up your ally.

Shawn

Shawn,
I have been known to do that too. Can always be removed with solvent or touched up. Works especially well on Remingtons. Silver scopes become matte black, or even camo, this way too.

My cousin used green and brown
rustoleum on the metal parts of a SS Ruger of mine and it didn't look half bad. He took it off with a solvent when he was done and it didn't show.

You can have the metal iron plated first and then blued....it's not new.....

I agree with the previous post. I don't know the method, but that is what Winchester did on their pre 64 model 70s. On the models that had stainless barrels, such as 220 swifts or varmint models, etc. the barrels were first iron plated and then blued. It produced more of a greyish matte blueing than a deep blue, but I think it looked very acceptable. So it's been done for a long time and I think Winchester had a proven, durable method.

I have used Brownells Teflon/Moly Oven Cure Gun Finish.
It was easy to work with and comes in 8 colors

Anybody got a picture of a blued stainless rifle (not iron plated) they'd like to share? I had always been told this was impossible to do. I'd like to see the results of one that had been done. It would open up a lot of choices not avalible before.

Terry

Friends-

I'll second what Terry said, is there someone willing to post a picture of a blued/blackened stainless barrel and/or rifle.

Also, there was mention of some folks that regularly use and provide this kind of bluing, if we could have a name or two, that would be helpful.

Thanks,

I dont know the how, but Dave Gentry can and does. He has done a SS Mdl. 70 for me that has a matte blue that has held up well.

HBH

Bluing stainless is not a difficult process with the Oxynate 84 salts from brownells. You do have to pickle the metal in a bath of muratic acid prior to the salt dip. After the pickle its no different than regular hot bluing. The result is very black and typically little to no lustre.

The "low lustre" may be due in part to the etching effect of the acid bath.

Saeed, teh follwoing appeared some time in 2003 (?):


What you normally see in marine and medical applications in stainless is 300 series stainless, which has a high degree of nickel. This allows it to be extremely corrosion resistant, but at the same time, it's a bitch to machine, hence the fact that gun manufacturers use 416 stainless. 416 is much easier to machine, but it's tendency to rust is much higher. If the stainless is passivated, it will eat off most of the free iron that is on the surface of the stainless, but even that won't guarantee that your gun won't rust. In fact, over the thousands of parts that I've manufactured in stainless, and put through the passivation process, I've not been impressed with it's increased corrosion resistance. The only thing that I ever found that really worked on stainless, aside from some of the coatings that have been mentioned above, was to passivate the stainless, then hot caustic blue them in normal steel salts. After the passivation process, the majority of the free iron has been eaten off the part, what's left then gets blued. It's without a doubt, the best finish I've ever used for stainless. The finish that is obtained is a dull grey, not quite silver finish, but still pleasing to the eye. There isn't a hunting enviorment on this planet that it won't hold up to.

--------------------
Matt Williams V.P.
Williams Firearms Company Inc.


Hope it helps...

Gentlemen,

Thank you all for your suggestions, but what we are looking for is some process we can apply ourselves here.

So far, I have also received a number of email messages, one suggesting a certain type of oil based paint. It is supposed to be applied in two thin coats, and then baked.

Seems to be the easiest of all the suggestions, and we will try it.

I did suggest to Walter that he tries the DRANO, but he refused, saying "I don't like to play around with chemicals. They can blow up!?"

And this is coming from a man who has shot himself God only how many times!!