Blued finish chipping/falling off

PaulDiStefano

PaulDiStefano

Joined
Nov 14, 2016
Messages
636
hey everyone. I've been trying to blacken/blue brass and nickel silver. I have used super blue, brass black and oxphoblue but after I build up about 6-7 layers to get a real dark finish the finish kind of like chips off and leaves little streaks of the metal underneath. How do I avoid this. Are there specific things that cause this when applying the finish or is it just that these brass metals just don't hold these products well. Thank you
 
I think it's a multi fold problem. First is generally an oxide is harder then the base metal. I'm also guessing it would have different thermal expansion rates. I think this combined with all those layers creates a unstable finish. Think of it kinda like rust. Light surface rust is rather stable. But once it really starts to get some depth it starts to flake off. If I wanted a black finish I would use a steel like 4140 and hot blue it.
 
JTknives said:
I think it's a multi fold problem. First is generally an oxide is harder then the base metal. I'm also guessing it would have different thermal expansion rates. I think this combined with all those layers creates a unstable finish. Think of it kinda like rust. Light surface rust is rather stable. But once it really starts to get some depth it starts to flake off. If I wanted a black finish I would use a steel like 4140 and hot blue it.
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Thanks for your help. I'll have to change up what I'm doing for sure then
 
Geoff Flato said:
1018 hot blues really well, I did a frame handle out of it a while ago. Fairly nice to work with too.
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I'm gonna have to get some of that and other steel. Nickel silver is just so easy to work it's so fast. I guess I'll have to make an upgrade
 
Pretty well any non stainless steel should blue, but for guards and such mild steel works just fine. 12L14 is very nice to work with, but I've never tried bluing it.
 
12L14 is a very easy steel to work becaus of the added lead in the aloy. It's a common steel to see used in manufacturing with screw machines.
 
I've never used 12L14 for knife fittings, but I've used it for lots of other projects. One of these days I'll have to try bluing it.
 
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