I have a piece that i would like to keep the gold temper color on.  Is there something i can do to help preserve the color?

 Have you tried the brass brush trick ,to get color?                Dave

6 minutes ago, Binesman said:

I have a piece that i would like to keep the gold temper color on.  Is there something i can do to help preserve the color?

 

keep it in a strong vacuum?

You could coat it with something like Renaissance Wax, but if it is a piece in which the tempered surface will be handled, rubbed, or otherwise in contact with anything that moves, the tempered color will rub off over time.  If the piece is just for looking at, then clear coat or the aforementioned wax will help keep the color without rusting.

It's an extremely thin oxidation layer: wear and moisture will cause problems.  Preventing those will help keep it longer. The brass brush method will last longer but the temp is too high for a tempered blade (and too low to do before quenching)

He's never told us what the piece is, so it makes it hard to suggest a good method for him to get and keep the color he wants.

Forging it out of gold is good for colour but not very hard---I got to see Buster Warenski's copy of the gold Tutankhamen dagger at the guild show one year. 

Its for a candle holder so it will be handled

In that case the first suggestion of the brass brush trick is probably your best bet, although a durable clear coat could make it last for quite a while.

I've never heard of a method to keep temper colors for very long, months, maybe a year or better but . . . However you CAN forge from stainless steel, electro polish it and chemically patina it to a close match for the color you're looking to preserve. Do NOT quote me but I THINK the process calls for ferric chloride and DC current. It's been years since I followed that conversation between a couple public artists who specialized in stainless. They were getting some pretty spectacular effects like detailed feathers on a hawk sculpture, etc.

Frosty The Lucky.

 Clear lacquer, or a clear powder coat.  Lacquer keeps brass instruments from tarnishing. 

Or make it out of titanium. Titanium oxides are very tough and long lasting. 

and quite bright too!

The colors are caused by the interference of light waves bouncing off both front and back surface of the oxide layer that forms when tempering.  It's similar in nature to the colors you see in a soap bubble or oil slick and requires very thin layers to happen (on the order of light wavelengths).  To keep that you would not only have to protect that surface from ANY further oxidation but also from any physical abrasion that would change or remove the very thin oxide layer.  That's a tough row to hoe.

I'd instead look to other ways to create a colored surface as many have said here.  Don't waste your time on battles you know you will lose in the end.

I will agree with Kozzy on this - a long time ago I tried to save the heat coloring on copper tubing, thinking I could just spray with a clear coat from a rattle can - just "that" thin layer of film washed away any colors previously see by the raw copper heat colors. Try a bunch of different methods - Good luck, but like it's been said your dealing with a very thin layer that causes the coloring, and it is just a surface layer that can be compromised easily.

Greetings Biensman/ others ,

         I have done several sculptures and other things where I wanted to preserve the temper colors .. I will pass on what I do.. I use clear enamel but the trick is just a very light wisp at first than let dry completely.. Than follow up again several times  with a light wisp..  Give  it a try it always works for me.. Have fun.. 

Forge on and make beautiful things 

Jim

 

Now if you want a mottled effect you can look into what are called case colors like the ones used on certain firearms.