Bronzing/coloring Steel parts

[ShepardCC]

I recently saw a spyderco tenacious in the for sale section that was just awesome.

All the hardware, screws, pivot, and liners were bronzed. It looked like even coloring throughout.

I want to do this to a few of my knives.

I've done a lot of looking but haven't found the exact process of how to do it. From what I've read you can heat treat color steel as well as coloring it as you would when you anodize titanium. Except you use different chemicals than titanium

Has anyone tried this? What have your results been? Anyone know anyone who does it??

Thank you

 

[Morrow]

Let's get this to the correct forum.

 

[tatfiend]

I could be mistaken but I would think the knife has had some type of coating applied rather than being heat treated along with the application of some chemical. Most stainless steels cannot be chemically colored as the term "stainless" means what it says. Also true heat treatment coloring such as on many Colt Single Action revolvers or hot blueing is only done to carbon steels. Any straight heat coloring is going to involve temperatures which would affect the original heat treatment of the blade, degrading lnife performance IMO.