The Armour Archive

Ok so I have a maille shirt made out of .8mm wire (welded) and I want to darken it up a bit, so I doesn’t look so mundane and artificial. I’ve also got a stainless aventail out of 14ga stainless rings that I’d like to color.

I don’t know the grade of stainless that the rings are made out of. The small rings are German welded maille and the thicker ones are ROSCO rings.

On the thinner rings I tested out a section and it darkens up too quickly for a controlled coloring.

Any and all ideas are welcome.

I think anything that you do will only be temporary, and will require occasional re-doing.

I'd go with good ol' trusty fire, myself. Maybe start a charcoal fire and let the suckers barbeque for a while. The only problem is that for a while it would have a tendency to get black stuff all over whatever you're wearing it on. That, and the fact that eventually the movement in the rings will rub a "clean" spot.

HELMUT

For the thicker stuff, I'll probably do just that. For the thinner rings, they're too thin, when they hit red hot they bend by the weight of the maile.

Arland, don't heat them to red; just get them hot enough to turn grayer. The graying darkens with repeated heatings; I don't know if it's a function of heating-cooling cycles or of the amount of time spent hot, oxidizing. I'd try for a minimal amount of such graying; it alters the corrosion resistance of the metal.

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http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/007950.html

here is some information.

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Well I tried to heat darken it in the oven like you do mild steel. After an hour in the oven at 500deg no change at all.

You might want to try using a big propane torch if you have one available. I have a 500,000 btu monster that I've used to haet colour plate with some success.