How do I bronze Emerson hardware (or any hardware)

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dzlvs8

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Jun 13, 2013
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I am looking to get a nice shiny bronze color on my Emerson Super Roadhouse. I have seen someone anodize hardware, but I don't think it is how it was done. In this video, Carter describes how Tuff Thumbz maybe used heat to bronze the hardware. Any clues on how to do this?

Example:
[video=youtube;aKvGsrCdmjI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKvGsrCdmjI[/video]
 
Very, very simple. Make sure the hardware is clean (and satin finished or high polished preferably) and then heat the screws up with a blowtorch. It goes a dark, ugly bronze very quickly so apply heat sporadically and make sure you're in a well lit area where you can monitor the color change. Steel will pretty much only go gold/bronze, and the anodizing wears off pretty quickly.

If your hardware isn't satin/mirror polished yet, just put the screws in the chuck of a drill/drill press/dremel, and lightly press it up against a scotch brite pad. It will take a nice satin finish very easily. You can buff it to a mirror finish easily after that.
 
There is a better and more uniform way to do this:

Get a hot plate or use an oven burner and place the parts on a larger piece of steel or brass, etc. to act as a tiny bit of a heat sink. Place the larger steel piece on the hot plate and your parts to be colored on top of that. Gradually bring the heat up and wait for 5-10 minutes for the heat to equalize each time to see where the color stabilizes. Once you have the color you want, remove the parts from the heat. Once you've done this a time or two you'll get an idea of what temps you need to get the colors you want. You can use anything for the heat source, propane torch, oven burner, etc. Just make sure you have that piece of steel or similar between the heat source and your parts to be colored - do NOT apply heat directly to the parts.
 
eKretz said:
There is a better and more uniform way to do this:

Get a hot plate or use an oven burner and place the parts on a larger piece of steel or brass, etc. to act as a tiny bit of a heat sink. Place the larger steel piece on the hot plate and your parts to be colored on top of that. Gradually bring the heat up and wait for 5-10 minutes for the heat to equalize each time to see where the color stabilizes. Once you have the color you want, remove the parts from the heat. Once you've done this a time or two you'll get an idea of what temps you need to get the colors you want. You can use anything for the heat source, propane torch, oven burner, etc. Just make sure you have that piece of steel or similar between the heat source and your parts to be colored - do NOT apply heat directly to the parts.
Click to expand...
Got it. Thanks knife knowledge fairy!
 
Why is it so important to have a metal plate between the oven burner and the screw?

Are screws tempered? if so, how will coloring them with heat affect the temper?
 
Because if you don't you will never be able to reliably hit the color you want. The plate slows down the heating process so that the heat is evenly applied to the screw/hardware. If you try to do this with just a torch (or any open) flame you will never evenly heat it and get a uniform color. Using a torch you also risk blowing the parts all around the room if you're dealing with little screws for instance. The screws are just like a knife blade in that heating them too hot can affect their temper, but the vast majority of screws won't be anywhere near as hard as blade steel, so you will be safe up to around blue color (for steel screws) with no major ill effects.
 
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