The Armour Archive

Hi, my VERY first post here.

I am in the process of comissioning my first complete harness, first half of 15th century, german style. By a very able young Ukrainian smith. Now, my original plan was having a heat blued treatment done, I really like the blue/black appearance, as seen for instance here:
http://englyshe-plate-armourie.co.uk/Ga ... ur.html#BH

But my armourer is increasingly sceptical to this. His point being, that such heat blueing is too prone to nicks and scruffs, leaving the harness less than pretty after some use.

So my question to you out there: IS this a very real deficiency with heat blued armor, and is it possible to do "touch-up" with careful use of blowtorch, or even chemical blueing?

Hope somebody with experience can offer opinions and advice.

Lonewolf
Oslo, Norway

Welcome to the AA. I have to agree with your smith, heat blueing is probably the least durable surface treatment, though it is one of the prettiest too. Perhaps a chemical blueing would be a better way to go.

edit: On further thought... what is this armor for? If you won't actually be fighting in it, it might be fine.

Thank you for the input.

Armor will probably mostly be used on horseback, if I can follow through on my plan of learning to joust...
But also probably some unmounted fighting, maybe some poleaxe stuff.

What options for chemical blueing are there, that may be viable options?

I found the exact opposite. A chemically blued harness I had was a PITA to look after. It scratched, needed constant oiling and upkeep.

I heat blued a sugarloaf and some greaves with a gas tourch and it was the toughest most durable finish I have ever had. I jousted in the helm and greaves at a very wet event, packed them in my chest with some wet and sweaty bits and they sat in there for 10 days. When I got them out they were covered in condensation but there was no rust at all. I just wiped them down and gave them an oil.

When I was heat blueing mine I let the metal cool down a bit and then applied a beeswax/olive oil coating to it. This melted into the metal. I don't know if this helped but it didn't hurt. Just don't apply if teh metal is too hot as it will burn and stain the steel.

Rod Walker wrote:When I was heat blueing mine I let the metal cool down a bit and then applied a beeswax/olive oil coating to it. This melted into the metal. I don't know if this helped but it didn't hurt. Just don't apply if teh metal is too hot as it will burn and stain the steel.

That's actually how I end up finishing all my metal work, both sculpture and armor. Get the metal hot enough to melt wax, which isn't much, and just rub it in and let it melt. Lightly rub and buff off the excess wax when it cools.

I had a mild helmet that would get rust finger- and handprints from just one day. After the wax treatment, I've not seen rust on that same helmet in over two years.

a large portion of my gear is heat blued including my new helm as well as my last helm.
i never had a problem with the blueing coming off or getting scratched up.

I have heat blued, heat coppered, heat brassed and heat bronzed (just colors) 1050 steel and found that it is a lasting and durable finish. I have been in FL with the humidity here for over a year now and even missing a few oilings, resisted rust pretty well. I recently removed the finish and at the last event I attended, I didnt bring my WD40. When I took it out a week later, covered in rust spots... I take that as good evidence of rust resistance.

I have never, ever had a problem with my heat blued items. IMHO it's THE best finish of the choices given and it's a period technique.