[TheForge] Finish for repro antique hinges

[Lynn Emrich]

I have had good luck with just using motor oil. Dunk
the piece while hot and allow to burn off and repeat
until desired finish. I use used oil because I'm
cheap! I was talking about that finish at a FABA
smith's meeting yesterday and was reminded that an
iron skillet is 'seasoned' with the same process. I
should use wax for outdoors but the ones I have done
this way seem to hold up OK.
Lynn

--- Reynolds <rmcushmanxiii@excite.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 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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