Darrel & the rest of the group:
I copied this awhile back from a post made by Randal Graham, and with his permission any yours, I'll repost it here. It's a little long, but is definitely on topic.
Regards,
Harry Jensen
Fresno, CA
<<Learned a real neat trick in Alabama from Kieth Kilby,who was kind
enough to give me a private lesson on the subject at Batson's hammerin.
Colour case hardening supplies a decorative random colouration to the
surface of the treated steel. it's very prevalent on guns,particularly
fine muzzle-loaders,but it looks incredibly good on knife furniture as
well.
Kieth showed me a bowie with coloured guard,frame,and pommel
section,with stag slabs,and it was one of the most striking knives I
have seen in a long time.
here's how it goes;
You need a container to pack the pieces into with bone charcoal. Kieth
uses a pipe with a welded cap on the bottom,and a cap on the top thats
held in place with a simple piece of wire.
The process;
the container is heated to 1350 to 1400f for min of 30 minutes or so,the
container is held over a water quench,the wire is cut and the contents
are allowed to fall into the water. The resultant swirls and patches
show colours ranging from dark blues and greens to bright pinks and
reds,and the colouration is fairly durable to boot.
1375f is the ideal temp point,but he did do a demo by eye at Batson's by
holding the container at dull red,and it worked like a charm.
The variables;
Time at temp,and distance to quench have an effect on the results,and an
individual would have to expierement some to get results they were happy
with.
Keith like to hold at temp for around an hour,sometimes more,so there is
lots of room for playing.
One thing keith mentioned was that if you are doing multiple pieces in
one box ,it's good to arrange things so that the smaller pieces fall out
first to the quench,followed by subsequently larger pieces,to minimalize
the possibility of small pieces going into the vapour envelope of larger
pieces and fudging the effect.
I've tried the process on some parts for some upcoming swords,and I'm
just tickled to death with the look,it's really classy looking.
Randal
DFF>>
