The Armour Archive

So, I have this spangen helm. It is a nice helm. It has brass bands and accents on it. But, I was thinking about blackening it.

Question:
What will happen to the brass if I blacken the helm?

like black oxide?

If its black oxide I would recommend taking the whole helmet apart and doing the pieces then putting it back together. The chemicals will collect in the assembled helm gaps and fester and "pus"

If you heat blacken it the brass will change color.

If you gun blue , depending on the type of solution the brass will change color but can usually be rubbed ou.


Donngal

double post

I mean the old fashion oil + fire = blackened steel.

But, I bet I could gun blue it too. The brass is on the brow and cross bands so easily avoided.

I can't disassemble the helm. It is welded and riveted.

Donngal wrote:
If you gun blue , depending on the type of solution the brass will change color but can usually be rubbed out.


Donngal

The brass will turn black, but it is easily cleaned off. I do it all the time.

You can dab petrolium jelly on your brass real carefully with a q-tip to use as a resist to the gun-blue chemicals.

Later, when the gun blue is ready for oiling, just smear the jelly off the brass onto the steel.

I did this years and years ago, and had pretty good luck with it.

Liver of sulphur will turn latten very black.
It works best on copper and a little heat.
Go over it with a scrubby to give it that aged patina.

These are tricks metal sculptures use.
I hope I have not violated the sculptures secret code of tricks.

Hal

Gun blue for sure turnes brass black but it's easily cleaned off with brasso.

I chem blacken stuff all the time. The gun blue will turn brass, copper, etc. along with the steel black. but, as mentioned above, it comes off the brass easily. What I do of I already have he brass or copper on is use clear nail polish on the brass. let it dry, and instant metal mask. go nuts with the gun blue. wash it, dry it, oil it...
Then take cotton balls and finger nail polish remover and strip the brass back to the origional condition and your primo!
easy to do. if you get a spot you missed and the brass gets a touch here or there it comes off with a touch of 5 ought steel wool in a jiffy. If you accidently get some on the helm as you start just use a q-tip and romover and touch it up.
Oh, by the way, STRIP the entire helm before you put the nail polish on with Brake Cleaner. It's a dream. Much better than the denatured alcohol i WAS using. just blast it alot and let it dry outside. Then nail polish it. the brake cleaner produced a much cleaner helm, hence a deeper black.

Here is the helm I am looking at blackening. It has been well used. It is a Krag helm designed by me with some of his artistic flare. The brows and nasal are pattern welded steel and the brass straps on the slat back have celtic style bulls etched into them.

Obviously I need to bang out the dents and clean the rust first.

Aiden, bring it to Fyrd retreat and Angus and I will fix it and blacken it.