Heat Coloring: temperature + color results?

MTHall720

MTHall720

Joined
Sep 21, 2010
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I am trying to heat color my sanded, polished pocket clips. I should say I am trying again. First time I used my larger hand held blow torch but think the heat too much. Now I have a lower heat mini butane torch which I saw on a you tube clip being used for this.
Is there a correlation between how hot the flame is and what colors to expect?
Should the flame be held really close to the metal or farther away?
When you get the color you want can you let it simply cool off or do you need to immerse in oil like I have heard about.
Thanks very much.
 
Heating carbon steel to the point past blue will destroy the spring temper!
Stainless does not show heat colors readily, and you may also affect the spring temper. Quenching in oil is not necessary. Heat colors are also very thin and wear off easily.
 
Thanks very much Bill! I may back off on my pocket clip project. Some of my blades come with bright pocket clips. So bright they attract unwanted attention. I may simply paint them instead.
 
I wouldn't recommend painting due to the high wear nature of the pocket clip and the fact that it will chip pretty easily. An alternative to painting would be Duracoating. It's much more durable, but would require you to have a small air compressor and airbrush set up. You may not want to make that type of investment for just a couple pocket clips.

I just stonewashed a couple of my blades and pocket clips and they came out great. It takes away the shine and leaves a nice matte finish. Its also very easy and cheap to do. Here is the tutorial I followed. Just threw it in the dryer for an hour and a half and bam.

[video=youtube;bSdPr3Oa8F8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSdPr3Oa8F8[/video]
 
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