Blackening!

Ian@StEnochs

Western Thunderer
Hi All,

Last night I shaped and soldered the first step onto the back plates for my latest build. I ran out of time so just dropped the bits into a small tub of water which I had on the bench. You can imagine my surprise when I fished the bits out this morning to find them blackened. Why? See the photo below.

After a wee bit of head scratching the Penny dropped. Earlier in the day I had blackened two Slaters wheel screws with Birchwood Casey gun blue for steel. I did it by dipping them in a dilute solution which I keep in a bottle
and then rinsed them off in my little tub of water on the bench. The same water I dropped the steps into! Now the rinse tub is a 300 ml cream tub and it was half full so 150ml water so it must have been a very dilute solution, homeopathic almost! I have always used a dilute solution for blackening because I find it makes a better more robust finish. But not this dilute!

I have just spent some time cleaning off the black, taking some time, before soldering the other steps on. Let’s hope when I do the blacking before painting the finish is as robust.

Ian

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DrIain

Member
Hi All,

Last night I shaped and soldered the first step onto the back plates for my latest build. I ran out of time so just dropped the bits into a small tub of water which I had on the bench. You can imagine my surprise when I fished the bits out this morning to find them blackened. Why? See the photo below.

After a wee bit of head scratching the Penny dropped. Earlier in the day I had blackened two Slaters wheel screws with Birchwood Casey gun blue for steel. I did it by dipping them in a dilute solution which I keep in a bottle
and then rinsed them off in my little tub of water on the bench. The same water I dropped the steps into! Now the rinse tub is a 300 ml cream tub and it was half full so 150ml water so it must have been a very dilute solution, homeopathic almost! I have always used a dilute solution for blackening because I find it makes a better more robust finish. But not this dilute!

I have just spent some time cleaning off the black, taking some time, before soldering the other steps on. Let’s hope when I do the blacking before painting the finish is as robust.

Ian

View attachment 134157
 
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