How do I blacken bright nickel-steel?

[Todd Burch]

I could not find a black piano hinge for a couple chests I'm making, so I bought a (Stanley) bright nickel-steel hinge (30") with hopes that I can make it black.

I have blackened steel before using a propane torch and boiled linseed oil, but it is a slow process and it is easy to produce results that are non-uniform.

I figured I could also sandblast or sand and then spray paint (flat black), but I'm not so sure that will hold up well over time.

Anyone have any other ideas? A dark rust color would be OK, but I would prefer the "wrought" look, as far as color goes. I want to do the screws too, althrough small black scews might be easy enough to find.

Thanks, Todd.

[Ron Taylor]

I'm not sure it'll give you the results you are looking for, but I've had good luck with gun blue. Rebuilt a combination machine vice that had worn slider bars. Buffed them off and blued them. I couldn't be happier. I don't know much about blueing, but there might be a combination you could use. Lots of web sites out there with suggestions on various oxidation processes.

[D.McDonnel "Mac"]

I've never done a long piano hinge but I have used a old FWW mag technique that has you strip the shinney coating off with Muratic acid and blacken the now bare steel with fire. I burried my hinges in a small wood fire in the garden and let them stay there in the embers and ashes for some time. Steel brush the ashes off the now black hinges and then a generous coating of wax while they are still warm. They look great!

Carefull with the acid it is some nasty stuff, use outside and rinse/dilute with lots of water before firing them.

[Jamie Buxton]

Rockler sells dark "antique brass" piano hinges. It isn't black, but maybe it'd be dark enough?

[Todd Burch]

I've just ordered a chemical solution from a company in California that should do the trick. I'll report back after I try it. May be next week before it comes in and I get to it.

Thanks for all the suggestions, and thanks for the reminder Ron Taylor to search the web! Duh!!

Todd.

[Garrett Lambert]

Here's a recipe picked up somewhere:

"soak in Muriatic acid and water (50/50) until it stops smoking, then rinse well. Put the hardware in a tin can and nestle it into the coals of a woodstove and leave until it's a nice red colour. Remove and let cool enough so that you can pick it up with gloves, then rub some paste wax onto/into the metal."

Cheers, Garrett

[Ron Taylor]

Shouldn't that post have been preceded with a disclaimer, "Kids don't try this at home!" :D

[Jamie Buxton]

Uhmmm... So you're going to apply strong enough chemistry to remove the chrome plating, and then more chemistry to alter the surface color of the metal, but the moving parts of the hinge are still going to work smoothly?

[Dr. Zack Jennings]

We use a product on stained glass lead lines, both lead came and solder joints, to turn the metal black. I don't know if it would work on steel.
A stained glass supply store might know. Johnson's wax really sets it off. A product called 'Glass Wax" works even better.