Stainless Steel Blackening Products

[Vilhelm550]

Wondering if anyone has used these products, the blackening solution and sealer, and how satisfied they were with them.

http://www.caswellplating.com/metal-fin ... kener.html

Considering using for a 301 stainless gauntlet project.

Comments? Alternatives? Was considering powder coating, but that most likely is out of my budget.

Thanks all.

[Destichado]

I have never used this particular product, but I have had very good experiences with other caswell products. I don't hesitate to recommend that you should try it.

[Tom B.]

Try a search here on the archive
like this one "stainless black caswell"

13 hits
I did not go through the threads from the search but, I remember a few with good clear directions on how to get consistent results.

Tom

[Vilhelm550]

You have schooled my search fu, Tom B.

[Vermillion]

Like was said earlier in the thread, I usually give Caswell's a big thumbs upl

But I have purchased the Stainless blackening gel and tested in on a bunch of pieces of stainless I have in my garage. Both 304 and 410.

The blackening was REALLY inconsistent, and was more of a medium gray than black. Even on pieces of stainless from the same batch

Suprisingly, the 304 worked better than the 410. I would have guessed the opposite given the higher carbon content of the 410.

I talked to Caswell tech support and they suggested prepping with sanding and then muriatic acid (high concentration sulfuric acid). At this point I mostly gave up and my blackening gel has not come off the shelf since. If you have to sand down the nice finish, and then prep with muriatic acid it is just not worth the trouble.

FYI, if you have never used Muriatic acid, make sure all skin is covered, you are wearing a full face shield, and you have plenty of ventilation. It is better that your outside. The stuff is major nasty in a bottle.

Others have reported better results.

[bhaiduk]

I've used it with good results to give stainless an aged appearance. I found it work much better to apply it with a sponge and rub it by hand to get a more even appearance that to submerge the piece. I also don't think the muriatic acid did much other than rust a bunch of tools in my shop. If you do use the acid, do it outside. Also polishing the pieces before hand helped give it a nicer finish.

Overall I think the stuff works well but needs some experimenting to get the desired results.

[Vilhelm550]

Yeah, I'm not doing anything with any kind of acid. I have clever, inventive, curious small children.
What I'm going to blacken is composed of a number of small pieces of 18 ga. stainless, some are 301, and the majority is whatever Zweihammer was using. I really don't know what alloy of stainless it is. The project is a stainless steel 'sport' Milanese style grounding fingertip gauntlets, so I just want them to be dark enough to blend in from 20 feet away.
The fingertips are nicely polished, but the rest of it won't be. I suppose once forming is done I can go over the main plates with finegrit sand paper to even the surface before blackening.

[Destichado]

Make sure they are chemically CLEAN. Mineral spirits or rubbing alcohol. It makes a big difference.