Blackening iron

[TexasJack]

Got a call from the FIL tonight. He bought a cast iron decorative thing of some sort. It had 3 layers of paint, the bottom most one being bright red. By the time he stripped it all off, the metal was cleaned to being shiny.

So he asked what could be done to darken the metal. I thought of Parkerizing, but I don't know if that will work on cast iron.

Any ideas?

[pipecrafter]

In my experience, such as it is, iron will naturally darken over time. However, if he's in a hurry, he might try some of the cold blueing products out there. Just be sure to try it on a hidden spot first. The Birchwood Casey stuff is very inexpensive, and has worked great for what I've used it for.

[Chuck Burrows]

1)get some stove blacking...if you can't get it locally it's available from Lehmans

2) heat red hot, and dip into boiled linseed oil - do it a couple of times. This is how old time blacking was done on harness hardware, etc.