The Armour Archive

Someone asked me about making a helm in the gunmetal gray area... instead of going all the way to black.

How would one go about doing that?

Heat and a little wd 40 seems to work

wd40 and a bench mounted wire wheel... and face protection, an apron, bag over your hair, etc. Its messy, but working an wd40 wet surface hard into a powered wire wheel has given a nice slightly dark finish for me.

A local auto body shop may have a media blaster and some walnut or soda that will help.
Wd40 and steel wool or a scotch bright pad seams to work well.
A wire wheel can work but be careful not to catch the corners and thrown the piece across the shop or pull you into the equipment.

There are a varity of oils that can be used to create different finishes with heat and fire.
Test samples or small projects work well as test panels.

Parkerize it.

Heat and WD40 has always given me a brown black. But then, it may depend on how much heat.

Yeah, more heat is the key. Eventually the brownish color will burn off leaving a kind of dull gray. First time I did it was by accident. I was blackening a helm and left it on the fire to long.