Heat Coloring Damascus

[Tom Militano]

I see a lot of heat colored damascus in Blade and KI and was wondering exactly how it's done. Is the damascus etched first? Thanks.

 

[Reg ELLERY]

I have only played with this on minitures and sometimes guards.
I have not done it for a few years.

All I used to do was hold my mini over the element of the kitchen stove with a pair of plyers. I did it a few times as the metal gets hotter it changes colour. I would buff to a shine when I did it.
1200 grit first, buff, did not bother getting the buff residue off.

I did it with 44oc steel on a guard , got it a nice gold colour. damascus I got a range of colours from yellow/gold pink/purple to dark blue.

It is only a surface oxide. it will come off when worked. It will take the correct heat treat out of your knives in most cases.

Looks nice.

Just polish up a small bit of steel and experiment. I used to fine I had to gudge when to stop heating. The stel often kept changing colour after I pulled it away from the heating element.

I have seen other blokes use a gas tourch to make spots.

Hope this helps. Someone may have something a bit more scientific.
I just woke up because the neighbours alarm went off.
Night shift got to love it.

 

[Tom Militano]

Thanks Reg. I think I'll play around with it and see what happens. Tom

 

[Laredo7mm]

Here is a color/tremperature giude for steel:

430 Very pale yellow
440 Light yellow
450 Pale straw-yellow
460 Straw-yellow
470 Deep straw-yellow
480 Dark yellow
490 Yellow-brown
500 Brown-yellow
510 Spotted red-brown
520 Brown-purple
530 Light purple
540 Full purple
550 Dark purple
560 Full blue
570 Dark blue

As you can see, fire coloring your blade will affect your HT/Temper.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tom Militano]

Thanks, that helps a great deal. I was wondering how different colors would effect the temper.

 

[kile]

Here is a little tip when heat coloring something. When it reaches the color you like dunk the piece in water immediately and it will quit changing color.
Kyle Fuglesten