Anyone have experience with hand/spray painting stainless steel screw heads?

[BloodyDonnie]

Want to colour the screw heads and pivot in blue on a Benchmade Crooked river.

They cannot be anodized as they are stainless steel.

A few sellers online are selling titanium anodized screws for the crooked river but no one is selling the pivot or the two pins on the scale of the presentation side.

So because I want the colour to match, I dont think I have any other choice than to paint them. Online research suggested painting stainless steel with acrylic by hand.

Does anyone have experience painting stainless steel screw heads? What kind of paint did you use and what kind of protective coating was used if used?

 

[Mr.Wizard]

I didn't think heat bluing worked on stainless but this video purports to show it. Could be worth a try?

 

[Tjstampa]

I haven’t done something as small as a knife screw head. Other small parts I have done worked best with auto body paint. The surface needs to be roughed up and primed. My fear is that you won’t be able to get the paint thin enough to not effect the fit of the torx bit.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Any paint you are able to get to stay on the screw heads will chip loose as soon as you put a driver bit in them.

 

[rpttrsn]

I heat the SS deep carry pocket clips I make for some of my knives. Use a propane torch. I believe it call oxidizing not anodizing. The color will depend on how hot you get the stainless. The part should be polished and very clean for the best results.
Here is the temp. to get the desired color. You should try it on spare screw heads before attempting on you screws and pivot.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...fected-zone-1.jpg?size=1000x1000&action=click

 

[BloodyDonnie]

I heat the SS deep carry pocket clips I make for some of my knives. Use a propane torch. I believe it call oxidizing not anodizing. The color will depend on how hot you get the stainless. The part should be polished and very clean for the best results.
Here is the temp. to get the desired color. You should try it on spare screw heads before attempting on you screws and pivot.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=Coloring+SS+with+heat&fr=yfp-t&imgurl=http://image.thefabricator.com/a/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-heat-affected-zone-1.jpg?size=1000x1000#id=3&iurl=http://image.thefabricator.com/a/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-heat-affected-zone-1.jpg?size=1000x1000&action=click

Oh yea I was looking into this as well but it seemed like it was a bit difficult, do you have pictures of clips you made blue? I want to see what kind of blue can be achieved

 

[rpttrsn]

All of mine have been done multi colored. It is a bit harder getting one solid color over a larger area as the heat has to be the same on the entire clip. Screws should be easier as it is a small area.

 

[TILLER]

I have used gunkote and alumahyde 2 for screws and they have held up. Sometimes hard to get the driver recess painted without going too heavy on the top of the screw.

I just tried heat coloring some stainless screws after seeing an Instagram post of Terzuola doing it. This is how it turned out:

I heated the screws until they were red hot. After watching that video with the shift knob, maybe I over did it.

 

[rpttrsn]

I have used gunkote and alumahyde 2 for screws and they have held up. Sometimes hard to get the driver recess painted without going too heavy on the top of the screw.

I just tried heat coloring some stainless screws after seeing an Instagram post of Terzuola doing it. This is how it turned out:
View attachment 1341385
I heated the screws until they were red hot. After watching that video with the shift knob, maybe I over did it.

Going red hot might be to much. Its hard to control. Go with less heat, then more the next time till you get the desired color. Practice to try to get a handle on the amount of heat to apply. Apply heat then stop to see the color. Heat more if you want to change the color. Might have to be done a few times to get the color you desire.