[TheForge] Finish for repro antique hinges

[Reynolds]

A recent commission job was reproducing 2 broken bean strap hinges for a small chest.  When putting a finish on them, I ventured outside my usual finish repertoire, and tried a new mixture and technique. Please feel free to tell me a better way to achieve the desired look of 100+ years on steel.

I took a mixture of unnprocessed beeswax and linseed oil at about 1:3, and heated to liquid in a 2 oz cat food can. Each nail I heated to black, dropped in the solution, left for 2 or 3 seconds, pulled them out and let the retained heat burn off the solution. This left a black residue burned into the nails. For some nails I had to repeat the above steps to attain the uniform black finish.

I then buffed the nails heads with a cotton cloth to remove the majority of residue, while leaving the black finish.

It all looked uniform and was better than tolerable for reproducing a 100+ year-old finish. Good looking stuff. 

This was very labor intensive. However, my motto is overdeliver. But how should I have done this? I couldn't afford to put this kind of labor into 12 nails and two hinges, for what I bid.  That brings up another question. What should I have bid this at (2-symmetrical sided 9" strap hinges with 12, 1 and 1/2" nails whose heads needed to be ground/filed to give a low profile)? I did it for $65. Not even close to paying myself a decent wage, but it was another happy customer. 

Go ahead, tell me what an ignoramus I was. 


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