Wrought Iron Finish Question?

Johnny Warner

Johnny Warner

Joined
May 21, 2007
Messages
530
I etched some Wrought Iron last night and it turned out ok. How does one get the beautiful patina finish on them. Would Mark Lee's or Laurel Mountain Forge browning solutions work? After seeing all those beautiful Brown (Patina) WI finishes on the guards and butt caps, I would like to try my hand at it. Thanks in advance.
 
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Maybe I should whine or beg for the answer. Seems like no one wants to share or I am too inpatient. I spent several hours searching different forums and turning up with a goose egg for results. Seems nitric acid might work, burnt on bees wax might. Just thought some of the persons work I truly admire might post. If the post had not been so far down, I would have waited a day or two. Sorry if this post offends anyone!
 
Man, ya' waited 5 hours on the nose for a response, that's a hell of a lot more patience than I have :) I've always heard of just using FC to etch, you may be able to "contaminate" some with some copper (a few old (pre-1982?) should work and it will leech some copper / brown into the metal. Haven't gotten my hands on any wrought to date, although I keep trying. I'd be interested to hear some other techniques.
 
Laurel Mtn Barrel brown works for me. Put it on with a wool dobber hang the WI in your shop for a couple days and let it rust, lightly clean with 0000 steel wool and WD-40
gives a nice brown finish, FC gives a gray looking finish.
 
Ive used cold blue for guns which turns it black then I hit it with fine steel wool to take off the black on the high spots then coated with car wax and melted it in. Looked pretty good.
This was all after etching in Ferric and neutralizing with baking soda/water first.
Chris
 
Aktoklat,

If you've seen pics of wrought Iron finishes you like, holler at the makers and ask them how they did it.

Mike
 
aktoklat,

I think the depth of the etch has a lot to do with the color that you get. I just check the WI periodically. I use ferric chloride. In my experience a fairly quick etch will yield a relatively light color with some grain visibility. A longer etch--time would depend on the concentration of the FC--tends to produce a darker tone and even bring out some subtle hues like a copper color sometimes. It probably depends on the grade of the material being used as well. Maybe you can see some of the tones in the WI on this knife--it was just a FC etch.

Tad Lynch

gentshunter1.jpg
 
That is really nice. Since were talking about the etching of wrought iron, how long was your etch?
 
Thanks, to be honest I don't remember. I just suspended it in FC and checked on it every few minutes.

Tad
 
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