Which do you like better, black or shiny?

Black high-temp paint or clear zinc plating?

  • Keep it black

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Pretty pretty, shiny shiny!!!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
Atlas Knife Company

Atlas Knife Company

Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Messages
3,668
Contemplating zinc-plating my forges instead of the high-temp paint currently used. It's a lot less work, far more corrosion resistant, cleaner, won't scratch as easily as paint, and is actually about the same cost. On the flipside, it's not quite as heat resistant, and black hides the imperfections in the materials better. As for the heat resistance, nothing on the outside of the forge gets much hotter than 500°F, and the zinc should be good for this temp. I know, you're thinking "zinc fumes are toxic", but zinc doesn't vaporize until much higher temperatures. At worst, a bit of plating on the back exhaust might melt and drip. It's that whole "black hides imperfections in the metal better" that has me worried. It's not that I'm doing a bad job of building these, but I don't want to have to finish sand the forges just to make them look as nice.

Oh, and you may notice that I've got a new handle and logo in the front, front and back plates are much thicker, too.

shiny_forge.jpg
 
Both look good. I like the black paint just because I can touch it up if needed/desired


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I like paint. It is what people expect, and can be touched up or re-painted with a spray can from the hardware store if needed.
Besides, everything in a blacksmith/bladesmith shop ends up black anyway.

You will get a lot of, "Oh, NO,... Zinc will kill you!" comments despite the fact that it isn't true.
 
Hey Mr Atlas, it's Don Davis--we chatted at blade show--I definitely like the black better FWIW--these are really great little forges folks! I love mine!!
 
Black.
You're making a lot more work for yourself plating these.
 
I think black too. Makes it look more like what it is a...... tool. I too love mine that I've had for about 4 years now I guess.
 
Black-plus if the zinc manages to get hot enough (I know it's not supposed to) the fumes are Not Your Friend.
Paint is also user-maintainable
 
In all fairness, I don't believe I can do a fair comparison until you send me one of each to examine and ponder over for the next year or so. These decisions should not be rushed into. I'll be waiting at the curb for the UPS truck. :D
 
I have one as well, I think it's a great little tool and black is fine with me.

Reading this thread I started thinking, someone is going to do something stupid and burn the plating off of it, which makes me wonder, have you had any weird failures or problems from users that you know of?

It's a straightforward design but you can't fix stupid, I bet someone somewhere has tried to turbo charge one or something.
 
Yeah, one guy back at the beginning ripped out the bricks and put kaowool and a T-Rex burner in it. I sent him new bricks, burner, and faceplates a few weeks ago. Otherwise, a few rust spots have been noticed, but nothing horrible if it's been taken care of. I'm just trying to find the best method of surface treatment that will look the best and prevent corrosion. The zinc flakes off after about an hour and a half, so back to the drawing board.

Still, here's a new video of the forge in use. Please feel free to leave comments on youtube.

https://youtu.be/E74t-pJjDtk
[youtube]E74t-pJjDtk[/youtube]
 
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