[TheForge] RE: SPAM [Sandbox] In need of a little advice.

[Stephen Viola]

Scale? I agree with Roger.. if your metal test pieces have ended with
scale you have bypassed the whole 'rainbow' spectrum and finished with
a grey scaley surface.

Of course it depends on the thickness of the material you have, as to
how to properly heat patina it. Thicker metal takes more time..
thinner metal can heat up too rapidly and is very tricky to master.

First and foremost you will need a good clean surface. I tend to use a
nice sanding disk or a scourer (known as Bears Tongue) to get a nice
finish under the colour. If you have greasy finger prints on the clean
surface you will notice them after you heat it. Don't be to paranoid
about this though.

Using and oxy/ace or oxy / prop torch as suggested by Roger, yuou will
get what you want.

A tip.. unless you want colourful spots, move the flame evenly across
the surface (keeping the torch a good 20 cm's away from the surface
you are treating) Don't be in a rush and as the metal heats the colour
will change. From what I remember the surface changes to a light
yellow at around 225 degrees C and moves up through the spectrum of
dark yellow, orange, red, various shades of violet to blue at around
310 degrees C.
Also, don't keep the flame on the piece consistantly.. lightly heat
the surface and then wait.. then heat again and wait..but doing this
you will avoid skipping all the various colours and can stop when you
want.. if you apply the flame constantly the metal will heat far too
quickly and you'll end up with a light grey with scale or a very
uneven colour.

If of course it doesn't work the first time.. you can sand down the
metal to it's original surface and try again.

Good luck!!

Stephen (Finland)

On 11/23/05, Roger Olsen <erik at methow.com> wrote:
> I was not able to opwn your attachment but I would say if you got scale you
> put way to much heat into your test pieces.  For a rainbow effect from
> temper colors, like on a motorcycle muffler, you want to get the piece
> totally descaled and as clean, smooth, and bright as possible.  I do not
> know how large your sculpture is but you should be able to bring out your
> rainbow temper colors using a small handheld propane bottle or oxy/ace or
> oxy/propane.
>
> my 2 cents
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sandbox-bounces at artmetal.com
> [mailto:sandbox-bounces at artmetal.com]On Behalf Of Aaron Williams
> Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 10:50 PM
> To: Sponsored by ABANA; RMSmiths at yahoogroups.com; ArtMetal Sandbox
> Subject: SPAM [Sandbox] In need of a little advice.
>
>
> Blank
> Hello groups,
>
> I apologies in advance for the cross posting, but I wanted to get the widest
> response I could.
>
> Here is my dilemma.  I created a sculpture for a class (I am a full time
> collage student) and I wanted to do a heat patina on it.  Well I had the
> ceramic instructor run a test piece of steel to see if it would do what I
> wanted, it didn't.  All the test piece did was scale up.  I was wanting was
> a rainbow effect.  Any advice?  Also has anyone ever tried a ceramic glaze
> on a piece of steel?
>
> Thank you in advance for any help you can pass on.
>
>
>
> Aaron R. Williams
>
> Dragon's Breath Forge
> Pueblo, CO
> 719-406-6063
>
>
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