Coloring steel like death

E

epicfail48

Joined
Oct 18, 2012
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So the title caught your attention, eh? Anyway though, ive got this image in my head of a pair of matched daggers; One solid black and one white. But, like everything i do, its not quite that simple. The black one, to my plan at any rate, will be easy, a spray of duracoat on the steel and some sort of black hardwood. Ebony perhaps. But the white is proving to be a challenge. See, im weird, i dont want 'white' in the traditional, looks clean and sleek and modern and pure; I want white in a way that makes you think "This is death". The handle is somewhat easy, im thinking bone, but the blade color i cant think of how to do. The obvious answer is white duracoat, but that would be too white. I was thinking white streaked through with grey, to get the more visceral effect, but i figured id appeal to the masses and see if anyone has anything better. To summarize, im looking for a way to get steel to a whitish-grayish color through near any home-done method, be it chemical reaction, paint, etc. The steel in question would 440 stainless in the boot dagger blank in the knifekits.com boot dagger. Many thanks.
 
Whitish-grayish? Why not just sand blast it?
 
I get your general vision, but that may take a lot of artistic talent to pull off rather than botch. The image that occurs to me is a bone-white, but with black traces through it, to duplicate the look of old cracked bone. If the black knife will be 100% black, on the white knife the streaks should be in the bone handle as well as the blade -- since you don't want the blade & handle uniform in one knife but different in the other knife. Or you could make the white handle pure white over the "bony" blade, and then on the black knife include some high-polish steel somewhere in the handle for a silver contrast look. I don't think any home finish will last too long on a using knife but these sound like cool showpieces that won't be used whole bunch. good luck & post pics!
 
You may be lucky enough to find some Brazilian ebony.
Although not a true Ebony, it shares many of the same desirable attributes. Trees are typically 50 -75’ tall with 16-24 ft. diameters. Trees are generally only purplish – black on the inner third of the log. Much of the sapwood is cut away just as in true Ebonies. The best lumber is produced in tight stands where the tree has to gain as much height as possible to create a long trunk with very few limbs below the canopy. This is rare and very hard to find in large clean boards. The wood is slightly easier to work that African Ebony and has a smoother more lustrous natural finish. The color is described as a deep purple – black. Sapwood is creamy white with some yellow.
A simple search will show examples of this high contrast wood.

Doug
 
BenR.T: Because i dont have the equipment for it but mostly because the thought never occurred to me. Thats a brilliant idea. Not quite the whitish i want, but a darn sight closer than my ideas.
fishface5: Not quite bone white, the image is rather hard to describe the way im seeing it. More a white that feel unnatural to look at, unnerving even. Im fine with the blades differing in look style, as theyll rarely ever be seen together.
Doug C: Thanks for the lead on the wood. Not quite the deep black im looking for in this but i see it coming in handy for a different project. Thats a gorgeous wood and a cursory search shows i could source it locally. I think.
Chuck Gedraitis Knives: Awesome blades, howd you do the steel for the one on the left? I cant be sure from the pictures
 
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