[TheForge] Finish for repro antique hinges

Sun Sep 21 21:10:01 2003

When doing the burnt oil for old black iron look, I use the Yellin formula
but add powdered graphite.  Not sure how much the graphite contributes to
the blackness but the end result is nice.

I used to use old oil too, until a couple of wiser folk than I on this list
pointed out the dangers of toxic fumes in old oil.  Now I just use vegetable
oil or the Yellin formula which is just linseed oil, beeswax and turpentine.
Even so, I have a fan going near to blow the smoke away from myself.

Harry Foster
Rusty Dog Forge

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Reynolds
Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2003 5:33 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [TheForge] Finish for repro antique hinges

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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