Bluing/blackening everything except the roping

[Jost von Aichstadt]

Inspired by all the recent discussion on blueing and blackening, and heartened by the mentions of treating stainless, I have a question. I've got this beautiful stainless gorget with roped edges, but:
1) I'm tired of worrying that the glare from it is uncomfortable in my opponents eyes; and
2) I'd like something a bit more like what I see in the portraits, which seems to be blued or blacked on the flat bits but gold or silver on the raised decoration. I'm not ready to try gilding the roping, but I think I'd like to blackening or blueing it.

So how to go about treating just the flat bits? Masking? What will withstand the temperatures and chemicals used in black/blueing?

[waveicle]

I would think you would have to blue the whole thing, then repolish the roping with the flat parts masked off. But I'm a novice "Bluer."

-waveicle

[Archie Zietman]

if you coated the roping in clay, and then stuck the gorget in oven for 45 minutes as was said in the other thread, then you could get a "differential bluing" kinda like a differential quench on a knife.

[Mad Matt]

Masking tape should work for keeping cold blueing solution off. Do a test on the back first and see if it works.

If you need info on chemical blueing go to arador and read my essay. too lazy to post a link at the moment.

[Mike F]

You can do an etching trick and use a "resist." Clay, masking tape, primer, basically anything that'll take the heat/chemicals involved. Just be aware some of it will be hard to get off if the finish isn't durable.

[Ken Zicker]

Jost, here's a pic of a sample piece I sent to a customer of exacty that, I polished the entire pc. then blackened it, masked off the blackened side and re-polished the roped edge, the remaining black left in the grooves of the edge kinda helps bring out the roping
Hope this helps
Ken
vKarms

[Jehan de Pelham]

That's pretty cool.

John
Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of Sir Vitus
www.mron.org

[matthijs]

Just painting it would be a period solution too, albeit probably not so shiny.

[Jost von Aichstadt]

Thanks to all who responded. I have some follow up questions:

Wavicle - doing the whole thing and repolishing makes sense, but how deep does the effect go? How much metal (and surface detail0 would I have to remove?


Archie - what kind of clay?


Mad Matt - Isn't the blueing solution still wet when the thing goes into the oven? Doesn't that mean that the masking tape would end up burned on? I'm concerned that that would put me right back in the position of grinding off surface detail. No? Thanks for the pointer to the Arador essay


Ken - thanks. What did you use to mask the blackened side? How much metal did you have to remove to re-polish the roping? Did you lose any detail? I think the monitor on this laptop must be having trouble with shades - on this monitor to my eyes, there isn't any noticeable color difference between the roping and the rest of the metal, though there seems to be some shadowing around the middle fluting. Flute?


matthijs - I've seen references for the use of paint in the high middle ages, but none for, say, May of 1586. Have you seen any? I'm not drawn to the paint solution, and it would definitely be hard to sell to my wife, but I'd like to know.

[Ken Zicker]

Jost, I use a low adhesion blue painters tape 1 1/2'' wide, then just go right back to the polishing wheel with a green compound and repolish, I don't lose any detail. It must be your monitor on my computer there's a striking difference of silver and black
Ken

[Ken Zicker]

Jost, I use a low adhesion blue painters tape 1 1/2'' wide, then just go right back to the polishing wheel with a green compound and repolish, I don't lose any detail. It must be your monitor on my computer there's a striking difference of silver and black
Ken

[Jost von Aichstadt]

Jost, I use a low adhesion blue painters tape 1 1/2'' wide, then just go right back to the polishing wheel with a green compound and repolish, I don't lose any detail. It must be your monitor on my computer there's a striking difference of silver and black
Ken

What did you use to do the blackening? Was this a stainless piece?

Pity my monitor sucks. From Jehan's response, I wish I could see the picture better.

[Ken Zicker]

This pc was 1050 spring steel, polished after it was heat treated using a product from caswell plating
Ken

[Jost von Aichstadt]

Thanks again. If I decide to go ahead with this, I'll post photos.

[waveicle]

Jost,

If you go with the cold bluing (Caswell, etc) which is what I was thinking of first, things are easier but the blackening layer isn't as thick. I've noticed that the cold method, for me, is flatter and blacker. You need a good amount of solution for larger parts. I think this is a good, cheap way to play with BO coating minus a torch.

I believe a 4oz. bottle of Black Magic is $44, no? It's just Selenious acid.

When I use a torch and heat the oxide layer is significantly more thick and glossy (I put my parts blackened under the cloth wheel) with a bit of gray. This method would take considerably more effort to polish off.

With all of these methods you MUST have a completely cleaned piece. I use gloves and acetone. A real pro way to clean is a quick dip in dilute HCL solution. If you don't get things completely clean you'll have tiny "blisters" of missing oxide when you heat or blotches when you cold blue.

One thing to note, cold bluing solution responds better if you heat it up some, like 80 deg F. Pre warming your piece also can help. Take what I say with a grain of salt cause I'm still learning how to blacken myself.

Ken - I haven't combined the cold kit (BO1) with heating, What are you talking about?

Waveicle

[Ken Zicker]

waveicle sorry that was a bit confusing, I just ment that the peice of spring steel was tempered before I used the caswell stuff, had to see how well the stuff would work on hardened spring steel
Ken