[TheForge] blackened steel finish

[Ron Swisher]

Amen to that Dan.  I believe that sentiment comes primarily from the German school of forging.  I embrace it wholeheartedly but my wife wonders why "we" go to so much trouble to do that when only other blacksmiths and a few forged-metal connoisseurs will notice the difference, as it relates to the aesthetics and price.

Ron
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: dan tull 
  To: mspencer at tallships.ca ; Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA 
  Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 10:28 AM
  Subject: Re: [TheForge] blackened steel finish


  St. Francis used to say to get round, start w/ sq.  To get sq. start w/ 
  round, hammer all of it.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: "Mike Spencer" <mspencer at tallships.ca>
  To: <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
  Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 1:28 AM
  Subject: [TheForge] Re: blackened steel finish


  >
  > "Lucky7Steel" <lucky7steel at gmail.com> wrote:
  >
  > Karen> Anyone have any suggestions for getting basically the mat
  > Karen> finish of hot rolled on cold rolled steel?  I have trouble
  > Karen> finding Patina's in Toronto.
  >
  > All the replies have addressed the 2nd sentence: how to get a black
  > patina.  My experience with cold rolled is not that I can't get a
  > nice black finish, it's that the relatively shiny surface texture
  > doesn't go away.  It's not clear whether Karen is looking for a patina
  > or for a way to modify the industrial-product look of the smooth
  > finish on cold rolled.
  >
  > For the latter, you might take a yellow heat so that the piece scales
  > a little.  Or you might try sand blasting. Forging all over at a
  > yellow heat should do it but you knew that, so that probably isn't
  > suitable for your purpose.
  >
  > There was a point when I could only get 3/8" square in cold rolled and
  > I just gave up making fire pokers out of 3/8 sq because the cold
  > rolled look, even with the corners chamfered, didn't suit me and the
  > price of a poker in my market didn't justify more messing around.
  >
  > Pokers? Yarn time:
  >
  > A long-time friend came by one day and wanted fire poker.  So I rooted
  > in my pile of rusty junk, found one left over from my crafty markety
  > days, cleaned it up and blacked it in the fire.  No charge.  The
  > friend has a lot of credit, y'know?  He got a big kick out of the
  > art-found-in-a-junk-pile part.
  >
  > A couple of months later, he showed up with his girlfriend and wanted
  > another fire poker, this time as a gift for Bill.  But the previous
  > year, I'd done a little job for Bill and told him the fee was a case
  > of beer, delivered before the end of August.  The beer never
  > materialized.  So this time, I found yet another poker of the same
  > vintage in the same junk heap, did protocol with wire brush and hot
  > blacking and told my friend it was forty bucks. After a conference
  > with the girlfriend, he took it very well, paid up.  I told him the
  > story about the case of beer a couple of years later.
  >
  >
  >
  > - Mike
  >
  > -- 
  > Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
  >                                                           /V\
  > mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
  > http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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