I'm excited! Parkerizing soon. Picture results added!

I just parkerized this knife. It's 15N20.

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Here is about the 4th or 5th knife I've parkerized. They all consistently come out this black. You have to have an even surface prep. I sandblast mine with 120 grit aluminum oxide and it takes less than 5 minutes to parkerize.

Once the bubbling stops I remove from tank and run it under cold water and douse it with either WD-40 or food safe mineral oil depending on the purpose.

The spots on the blade are just finger prints.

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Salem Straub said:
That looks real good! What temp did you use?
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Thanks. The deep black is really hard for me to photograph but I'm not a photographer by any stretch.

I do it in a stainless steel buffet pan on the stove top in the kitchen. That being said I can keep it between 160-180 pretty consistently. I use an old meat thermometer to measure the temp. Not a precise set up but it works. Scott McGhee and Adam DesRosiers gave me some really good tips in not overthinking the process.

Also I've done everything I can think to test this coating. Chopping various things, striking a firesteel with the spine. The only "practical" thing that I've done to mar the coating is to like a flint and steel fire using the spine of the knife as a steel against a piece of flint.
 
So, this just happened:

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Don't know why and google is giving really variable suggestions as to why. This is 1095 from the same heat i've been using, same processing. Sanded to 220, blasted with 80 grit, cleaned with alcohol, solution at 185f for 10 min.

This morning its a bit darker but still plum color.
 
Did your solution get contaminated?


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A.McPherson said:
Did your solution get contaminated?


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With what? I don't know. My tank is covered but not air tight, when not in use. I'm wondering if this was a time/temperature problem. I've emailed Lauer for help, since I'm using their solution.

This actually happened to me once before. I blasted the knife and went right back in. Came out the second time this way. After doing about 8 other blades with beautiful black finish using the same process. I was disgusted and it was a screw around knife so I oiled it and chucked it in a drawer. When I pulled it out a few weeks later it was the same midnight black every other knife was right out of the solution. So it blackened up over time, I just don't know how much time. Hoping this one does the same, but since it's an order and I don't know how long it took, I'm hoping Lauer can help me out.
 
kuraki said:
With what? I don't know. My tank is covered but not air tight, when not in use. I'm wondering if this was a time/temperature problem. I've emailed Lauer for help, since I'm using their solution.

This actually happened to me once before. I blasted the knife and went right back in. Came out the second time this way. After doing about 8 other blades with beautiful black finish using the same process. I was disgusted and it was a screw around knife so I oiled it and chucked it in a drawer. When I pulled it out a few weeks later it was the same midnight black every other knife was right out of the solution. So it blackened up over time, I just don't know how much time. Hoping this one does the same, but since it's an order and I don't know how long it took, I'm hoping Lauer can help me out.
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I was just reading about this the other day and there is a lot of different speculation on what causes it that's for sure. Anything from the wrong temp, week solution, silica in the metal, nickel content of the metal, it's all over the place. Hope you get it figured out. Some of the posts I read referred to the drippings from the cleaning and rinse baths contaminating the solution.
 
Yep, I read a lot of that. Some of which really doesn't apply in my situation.

-if anything, my solution is too concentrated as I have not added water since I initially mixed it, but the level is within 10% of where I started
-material alloy content has not changed, I've only parked 1095 knives that are not just the same material, but all from the same heat number and sheet
-I have no drippings from pre-rinse because I don't have a setup like gunsmiths typically use, I degrease with volatile agents prior to even heating my solution then hang the knife in open air while the solution heats up. It's completely evaporated and dry when it goes in.

If I don't hear back from Lauer today I'm going to reblast and try for a longer duration at a higher temperature and see what happens. I'm also going to add water back up to the original concentration.
 
Lauer got back to me and they think it's copper contamination, they've seen it happen with folks who use copper coated heating elements. I've not put anything into my tank that contains copper bit i suppose its possible it caught some grinding dust. I'm going to order a fresh gallon I guess and save this batch in a bottle.
 
kuraki said:
Lauer got back to me and they think it's copper contamination, they've seen it happen with folks who use copper coated heating elements. I've not put anything into my tank that contains copper bit i suppose its possible it caught some grinding dust. I'm going to order a fresh gallon I guess and save this batch in a bottle.
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Where do you get your Lauer from? http://www.lauerweaponry.com/? It looks a little cheaper than brownells.
 
Thanks Salem. That's the same stuff I was checking out on the link I posted. Comparative in price, within $4 depending on shipping on the gallon size. I know Midway is a reliable site. Not sure if the link i posted is the actual mfg or not. I didn't look that far into it. Do you use the black dip pre-treatment? Also considering that the mix ratio is 1 to 4, would you say the pint size is enough to get started since it would be mixed with 4 pints of water?
 
Yes, Lauer Weaponry. They're fairly local to me, I've dealt with them for many years, using Duracoat or buying guns, though I ordered this through Midway like Salem as well.

I used the black dip initially then stopped because I was getting the same level of black with or without it, and pre-etching in FC should do the same thing if you want a little deeper black color.
 
Pre dip is more effective with zinc phosphate than it is with manganese phosphate supposedly.
Also sort of off topic but aluminum oxide blasting media is supposed to be fine with park, but if you're interested in hot blueing glass is preferable. The salts will be contaminated by the aluminum.
 
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