Translucent color on a blade

[Derek H]

Hello everyone,

 

            I was sitting at work a few days ago and had an idea for a knife.  I was thinking that it would be really cool to able to make a wooden sheath for a knife and make it ether something like a sapphire blue or a blood red.  Making the sheath is the easy part and not all that special in itself. What I would really like to do is to color the blade of the knife the same color.  I have thought about simply painting the blade but that would not hold up well to any kind of use.  

 

        So my question is, is their a way to color a knife blade or coat it with something to color it that will hold up to light use.  I want the color to be bright but translucent so that it still looks like a steel blade.

 

Thanks for any ideas.

[Rich Hale]

The only thing I know that would do kinda wot you asked abouit is gun blueing. The hot blue that gunsmiths can do looks great on carbon steel that has a nice finish,,You cannot see through it.. However you can look at blued guns and see if it wot you are looking for..Some knives were also parkerized, a different finish done with different materials and methods.
Neither of these will make a poorly finished blade look any better.

[Derek H]

I have refinished several guns using both hot and cold gun blue.  You can achieve a translucent effect with the cold blueing but its not exactly what I am wanting. 

[bigfootnampa]

Yes, exactly what you are wanting does not exist as far as I know.  The closest thing I've seen are the titanium nitride, titanium aluminum nitride and titanium carbon nitride coatings that are used to coat drill bits.  It may be possible to achieve these coatings in a home shop... I don't know about that.  

[Steve Sells]

Of course if you want looks and do not care if its a functioinal blade, Titanium and electro/heat coloring offers a rainbow of color choices, but will never hold a good edge.

[Aden Cassidy]

Does bluing the blade with the hot gunsmithing stuff safe, have been thinking about it myself but don't know if there is any harm to it.

What effects does it have if any if it is a hunting blade used for quartering game etc...( third party raised thisto me)

[2Tim215]

There is a guy her in SA that takes Damascus knives and etches them deeply then sprays on high heat paint and dries in the oven just below tempering heat. He then sands the high spots lightly with 1200 # which leaves the color behind in the low spots - looks very nice if you are into that kinda thing. The paint he uses is the stuff they use on engine heads, etc. Wouldn't work on a plain blade though.

[Rich Hale]

The process of hot or cold blueing has its hazards When finished the hazards would not be from the blueing, it is a form of rust.

If this is just for decoration you could get a spray can of candy color car paint,,,,

[Laertius]

I second the candy colour spray..... a local custom auto paint shop could make a few spray cans for you of any colour you like...... with good prep it would hold up to light use.

[Dogsoldat]

what about using a laquer? much the same as japanese armour.

 or a clearcoat of some sort with a touch of colour added? 

[Jon Smith]

Not sure but an enamel coating might do. Might screw with the temper though and I don't even know if it would stick to carbon steel like it does to copper. I've never tried

[ThomasPowers]

Jon, is referring to the powdered glass enamels that are melted on, not paint enamels, and yes they do make them for steel very common a century ago with enamelware household items. When I worked on the line for Whirlpool in the 70's there was still a line of refrigerators that were done with true enamels for hospital use.

The temperatures involved are way higher than tempering temps. I wonder if it would be possible to use an air hardening steel and do the heat treat and enameling at the same time and then into a tempering oven...

[Derek H]

Thanks everyone for the input.  It was just something that i thought would be cool. I may experiment with is some later on. 

[rockstar.esq]

Many years back I was at a knife show and there was guy there who had damascus blades with mozaic designs cut into the blades.  These mozaics had pieces of damascus steel forge welded into them to compliment the pattern.  One blade had a cherry tree motif where the twisted damascus made the trunk and branches where as a more simple layered type was used in the cherry blossoms.  I occurs to me that you might inlay ceramic coated pieces in a similar fashion using epoxy or something. 

 

I believe I saw a picture posted here once where a touchmark was done on copper and riveted to the blade.  The effect is really neat.