heat coloring stainless Again

[gus]

I read some threads on heat coloring stainless with a torch or oven, everyone who tried it seem to have gottin' nice results. I on the other hand have been having some trouble! Tried several attempts with a propane torch with unfortanate results. It keeps going to cherry even with a slow heating. then goes back to normal. some one said they had tried heating the steel it was resting on. tried that with 1/8 steel still no luck. Got some straw Blue and purple mix on a small piece.but you can only see it at certain angles. Is there something in the process I'm missing. Is it supposed to go to straw before cherry? can some one help a buddy out? Should I use an oxygen mix? Trying to post pic of partial results.

[chrisinbeav]

It sounds like you are just heating it up and hoping for the best...? You need to heat it real slow. Make sure you are constantly heating and then taking the torch off of the item all together. The color change will not happen until you remove the torch. Since you are using a small thin piece of metal your color changes are going to happen real quick so you are going to have to take extra special care. It probably would have been easier to try something a little thicker and more solid first...With that small of a piece you can probaly go through the entire color spectrum in a mater of seconds!!

Chris Nilluka

[gus]

Thanks Chris, I did try a thicker piece first,but got no results,I was moving the torch off alot While heating to let the oxygen in. The thin piece was all I had any results with. I will try again even slower than I was even if it takes a pot of coffee.

[chrisinbeav]

One thing you'll notice.... with a thinker piece of material, say bolsters on a folder, it will take a while before the color change starts to happen. But then once it starts it goes pretty quick. For instance, the bolsters that I just did. It took probably 5-10 solid minutes before the color changing process would begin. After that it only took maybe 1-2 minutes to get the bolsters nice and blue, and at least half that time there was no flame on the bolsters at all. Hopefully this clarifies what I meant a little better.

Chris Nilluka

[gus]

Thanks you were 100% rite ,To fast Slow means slow and it was slow. but it worked.

[chrisinbeav]

I glad to hear it worked out for you.....

Chris Nilluka