Finishes for Metal

Hello! I am looking for a wee bit of help. I know most people on this forum are working with bigger projects than mine, but I'm entirely self taught and need an experts opinion. I took up copper plating 3D prints I've made and sometimes making them into jewelry. Only..... no matter what finish I seem to use on them, it loses its shine after a few wears. I need something that can take being worn and exposed to oil and the elements. Any help is much appreciated. To date I've polished it to xxxx and back, and used protecta-clear on it. Thank you for your time for reading this and I'd appreciate any help anyone can offer.

I am a gardener first and a smith second. I'm pondering making some plant markers, which would essentially be a stake with a flattened upper half, which could be engraved with "Tomato", "Kale", or even simple pictures of the produce in question. I'm wondering how long forged iron, coated in a beeswax/BLO/turpentine mixture, will remain reasonably rust-free. I don't need it pristine, I just need it to not completely rust over so that the engraving stays visible.

I've heard for years (even long before getting into blacksmithing) that there is a finish used that contains Beeswax, Turpentine, Boiled Linseed Oil and Japan Dryer. I understand the mixture is 1 part BW, 1 part Turps and 1/2 part BLO...............but I've never read or heard a proportion amount for the Japan Dryer. Does anyone know what that proportion is? And is this finish even still used today?

Hello, I was reading on the forum about the use of Penetrol to clear coat bare steel. Someone had mentioned earlier: https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/48866-clear-coat-sealer-question/ I had purchased a metal drawer cabinet that were in rough condition and had someone blast it with copper slag. The cabinet chassis in the attached pictures was then sanded using an orbital sander to smooth the finish. (Outdoors) I had cleaned the surface with isopropyl alcohol and then proceeded to apply Penetrol. Outdoor humidity was about 70% and it had just rained. On the attached pictures you see some brown discolorations. I am curious to know is this rust or something…

Smiths, Good morning! I am making my small daughter a pair of free weights out of railroad spikes. There won't be any forging, as the shop door is iced shut and I won't be able to get in for a few weeks. Just going to file off the sharp corners on the spike end. The rust is already off. Railroad spikes without rust look surreal. The question: since I can't get to my forge and I have to do all of this in the house, I'm wondering if a kitchen oven set to 550F will be able to get the spikes hot enough to accept beeswax effectively. I know the BLO/beeswax/turp. finish goes on at a black heat ideally, which I believe is closer to 900-1000F. My guess is that since t…

How would I achieve the following: Usually I bring the object up to 400-500 degrees and wipe it with Johnson's Paste Wax. This gives it that nice overall black finish and protects it from rusting. I'd like to hit just a few areas with some brass highlights. Would it work if I just hit those areas with a propane torch and then brushed with the brass brush? Or would the underlaying wax finish prevent the brass from sticking and I should wire-wheel the finish from those areas first? I waited till the last minute to consider/ask this question but even if I don't have an answer in time, it would be good to know for future projects. Nevermind - Just found th…

A quick question, Are there any basic tips or tricks to applying linseed oil to hot metal? I am trying to apply the oil to a piece of 40mm x 3mm x 500mm bar stock (1.5'' x 1.1'' x 19.6'') but I can't get an even coverage. Some parts of the bar stock will be very black, and other parts look like they barely have any oil on them. Here are the steps I take; 1. I heat the metal as evenly as I can. 2. I move the metal onto my anvil 3. I soak some linseed oil into a rag and then gauge the heat of the metal by seeing if the oil evaporates when applied. 4. As soon as the metal is cool enough to not evaporate the oil, I quickly wipe the metal with lots of oil. …

Hi there I have an old camper from the late 1970's. I located the VIN number on the trailor tongue, but due to years of weathering on it, the number is very light and almost not readable. Is there anything that I can put on it to make it easier to read or bring out the numbers better. Many thanks to all. Shane

First off, I came across this forum in Google and seems like an awesome place. Thank you in advance for any help. I have a 316 stainless steel gate which has been a continuous bane of my existence in the 3 years of dealing with it, since fabrication in 2018. For starters, it's either not 316 as I paid for but even if it's 304, it rusts so much worse than any other SS I've dealt with here in my 10+ years. I also have the following exterior things made out of 316; another gate, skylight, all kinds of exposed flashing, outdoor shower, door hardware, and more. Guess what? None of these other items even rust 1/10th as much as this gate. It must be loaded with i…

Just finished building my forge. It’s a mix of refractory bricks and cement incased in 14 metal with angle iron. what type of paint should I use and should I used a primer as well?

I would like to paint some mild steel (S235JR) while leaving the patination visible. The item is a hook rack that will be used indoors. Are there any recommendations here in Norway? Do I really need a primer? Preferably leaving a shiny finish, and bringing out the colours of the patina if possible.

What do y’all use to finish a dinner bell/triangle? I tried BLO but it developed rust spots after the first rain. I’m debating using a clear coat. My concerns are: 1) The clear coat being damaged/cracking when the bell is rung. 2) The thickness of the clear coat hampering the bell’s sound.

hi all.... im new to this forum and new to coating bare steel. ive a steel barge 20m long to which I have partial access to the base plate. I was thinking about making a mix of blo and beeswax with some sort of thinners to rub on the area of rust free base plate I have access to. I want to slow/stop any corrosion any ideas on this? smell would be a concern ... I would rather not use something that will smell for months as we live above! also I was wandering if anyone has any ideas as to something that could be poured in to the rest of the hard to access parts of the bilge? just to prevent rust. the old dutch barges had like a oil/…

Hi everyone, I've been working on this backplate for a coat rack through covid as an on-and-off time killer. So far I've chiseled, cut, drilled, filed, chased, carved, chiseled, undercut, inlaid, re-inlaid, re-re-re-inlaid, sanded, and brushed to get to this point. I've been considering a number of different finishes for each of the two ribbons of the knot; like now but buffed with a bit of steel wool, tempering brown, tempering blue, brushing with acid then oiling, etc. I've also looked at a few of the finishes from sculptnouveau.com, but I can't use any of the hot finishes because I'm worried about thermal expansion damaging the copper inlay. I'm not too wor…

Hi All, A quick question..... Can anyone recommend a clear coat to put on my intentionally rusted steel sculpture? My other question is, do all clearcoats darken the steel? I suspect they do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Simon.

So I’m 16 years old and experimenting around with forging knives. I invested in a propane forge an anvil a bench grinder, sander, and a couple other miscellaneous tools. I actually managed to come out with a decent looking knife that I made from some scrap flat bar I got from my trade school I go to. The knife didn’t come out all that bad…… after watching a lot of YouTube videos and lots of internet research I managed to put it into a nice shape. Here’s where I get stuck and need the help. First off my blade has hammer marks on both sides, they aren’t horrible but kind of an eyes sore. Second off what is the best way to sharpen the knife. I’ve heard so many different ways…

I've had good success with a brass brush adding some color to my work, has anyone used a copper brush and how did it work out?

I have made a bunch of kichen knives from 1095 and 1084 and I use them every day. A couple of them have begun to take on a very light blue or straw color. It's not completely even, but it's definitely there. They look similar to colors you get when tempering steel, but not as strong. The blades havnot been exposed to anything hotter than what comes out of a hot water faucet or any chemicals other than dish detergent. I would like to create this finish on a few blades, but don't know why or how it came about and would appreciate any suggestions.

I have a large production run of plant hangers (100+). This could be an ongoing item. I have tried various methods of painting including hanging on swivels and spray painting with cans and HVLP Guns. I also tried dipping but was never able to get a good result. I am tumbling them in a homemade tumbler as my prep. I am curious if anyone has successfully dipped and/or setup for production powder coating. One of my challenges is a limited amount of space for creating a large enough spray booth which is why dipping has always interested me. I am also trying to avoid more prep beyond tumbling and wiping of the dust. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Whenever I go to a paint shop and ask about a metal primer I get the same answer: "we don't use those anymore, use an antioxidant enamel instead, it's easier". But so far I ain't too happy with the results I've achieved with antioxidant enamels. I'm not good with paint but I've prepared and degreased the metal with care and applied the paint following the instructions in the can and the result is always a fairly delicate coat of paint, any bump or scratch against something hard and the bare metal shows. In contrast, I've had to strip some metals that had been primed and painted, tha coat was really thick and getting the bare metal to show was very hard, to th…

I'm playing with small jewelry items and I was wondering how to get an easy, quick shiny black finish on them. I've been using olive oil and a torch but it takes a while and I've had mixed results. Any help would be appreciated

Out of pure curiosity, is there another method other than grinding to remove scale and get a shiny finish? I would assume if there was, it would more than likely involve acid. Main reason I ask is while having fun making hooks and bottle openers over the weekend, I started experimenting with heat coloring. As I love the look of twist, most of my stuff has them and while using my Dremel to grind them clean works, it is rather time consuming process. So I am simply curious if there are different methods for such a thing to make the heat coloring go a little smoother and not involve spending a ton of time meticulously grinding the groves with my Dremel.

Okay I gotta ask, why boiled linseed oil on metal ? I mean why not some other kind of oil ? I hear it being referred to all the time for use to protect metal but why it over any other option ?

I wrote this in a different thread, and I think it is useful to share it here again. In my opinion there are two kinds of etching, to wash out (H2So4) and coloring(oxidize) steel( ferric chloride, gun blue and other natural etchants like coffee)vine gear and mustard are slow and have uneven and unreliable effects, coffee is the best. Etching with coffee has a few benefits: easy to get, to prepare and to dispose , no chemical handling and waste.No harm to health, no goggles and stupid latex gloves. It also gives better colors and it is no problem to etch twice on already finished presentation pieces(no acid surface line) no harm or damage and disco…

Hi everyone, how do you get scale if you have a intricately shaped workpiece? For example, let's say you make a fake flower and after shaping petals with fuel, you'll be there proportionally to all of your well-shaped roses. How will you clean it? Thanks for helping!!!