One of my supporters on Patreon told me about this brass finishing technique for steel. I'd never seen it before and thought I'd make a video to share it, along with some blackening (blueing) methods. It's a bit different to my usual videos but hopefully you enjoy it.:)
I have seen the brass brush/wheel technique before very cool, also I do believe that cold blue will darken over time, I blued the metal part of a scratch awl a few years ago to experiment with the blueing product I had, it looked meh at first but after losing it and finding it again, its much better looking now, cant wait to see the new mallet
Check iut Laura Kampf's latest video for a similar result. She acheived what looks like electroplated copper finish but using onky a wipe-on chemical preparation. I'm unsure about how tough it is, but it looks nice.
For more even results on small parts with the Black/Blue coating and possibly even with the brass you may have better luck heating with a Hot Plate. Either a cheapo one from a yard sale, thrift store or even a still super cheap one from online.
I've heard of this "toast-on Brass" method before but this really helps to show EXACTLY what I should be doing so that's quite nice. Seems darned nice to me!
I like the brass trick. When I was at school my metal work teacher had a bath of old car engine oil in a heated tub. Once it was hot he dipped tools we had made into it once cooled they were like jet black , black jappaned super cool trick that has never left me. Thank you MR Peel.
The brass on steel is mechanical plating. It actually is a bond at the molecular level. It’s also done with zinc on steel and then it’s mechanical galvanize. They add glass beads and a chemical to accelerate and improve the bonding. It’s done is a vibratory bowl. It can produce really thick zinc coatings.
I have seen all these (barring the rustbuster) used before, but it's nice to have them demonstrated clearly, coherently, and with good camera work. Cheers! For those wanting to see them on a larger scale, I encountered them in various videos on michaelcthulu's channel. He also has a trick for removing mill scale which, if I recall, is dunking the steel in vinegar for a day or so then rinsing/scrubbing it off. Works better if the vinegar is warm.
@Timbo Dewabem depends on the project whether or not the mill scale is desirable. In Mike's case, it isn't - guy makes weird and wonderful giant swords. I can see it being handy for outdoor furniture and fixings, though
you can also wipe linseed oil on steel parts and bake them in an oven at 250°C for an hour. This process can get repeated mutiple times to get a thicker coating. The result is an even, black surface which is rustproof and abrasion-proof
This is wonderfully coincidental. My partner and I were just discussing steel finishing processes yesterday, so to have your latest video be about exactly that is perfect timing! Thanks, Pask!
As always some useful techniques, well presented. The brass brush one was definitely new to me. Not sure that I have a need for it right now but it'll certainly get tucked away in the memory bank :) Thanks Neil.
I just love these sort of experiments. I especially like steel and timber projects, and to have the option of brass to add to the mix of visual effects is super exciting !
Yes very useful and thank you! Recently Laura Kampf took on copper plating with the electric method or the only method known until her and a chemist came up with a recipe to cold plate it. I’d love to see you take on copper plating as copper seems to be one of the most difficult due to its properties! Love the black and brass plating though, what a neat method to use on furniture and even for metal accents in wood, etc.
You made a fantastic show of these methods.! Clear video of the pieces of interest. Clear and succinct descriptions of what you're doing over the videos. Good comparison later on at the end. Thanks! There's a plethora of awful how-to videos, and it occasionally makes me want to stop trying to find them on youtube. Your video is one of the types that keeps hope alive for youtube!
Loved it! Beautiful steel finishes for the black but I have a good version for the making copper patina on steel. Clean steel, degrease, polish. Work outdoors with goggles, chemical mask, nitrile gloves, full cover up of body no skin showing, and a gentle fan blowing fumes other direction. This is important. Put beaker filled with 100 ml distilled water into a heavy bottomed steel or glass saucepan on the gas for both liquids to come to a rolling medium boil. Add 10 grams copper oxide into beaker and stir with a pipette or neutral objects till mixed well. Bring back to a gentle boil. Add 20 ml of Formic Acid 85% to beaker - do not splash! Mix and let come back to a simmer. This will now release toxic fumes so do not breathe this and do not splash hot acid on yourself. When mixture turns blue, it is ready. Remove from heat. Using a brush, brush mixture onto steel objects for instant copper patina. Apply liberally, then immediately rinse in water tub or tap. Steel object gets a thin coating of copper. If you don't rinse off, it continues to turn darker. Rinse well. Dry, and surface coat with lacquer matte or glossy finish. There is a chemical way to give steel a brass patina but I don't have that formula yet. The brushing is too much work. Formic acid is bee, wasp, and ant venom. If it falls on your skin, rinse with running water do not rub. Compress with baking soda and water paste. Do not inhale.
Thanks so much for this! I'm going to experiment with this more, like trying copper or any other fine wired metal I can get my hands on. This is so simple that I'm almost beating myself up for not thinking of trying this.... As always, great videos! You're probably the most underappreciated channel on RUclips (even when approaching the 1M mark). A true gem in the rough...
That's a good idea about the copper, although electroplating copper onto steel is very effective if you don't get the result you're looking for by using heat.
@@BrassLock that's right! But I have a larger supply of fire than I have of water... (I don't have running water in my tiny home, but I do have a couple hundred trees providing me with plenty of charcoal for forging and heat treating)
@@lukearts2954 It's interesting to hear about your mix of available resources, and how they can influence your art. Some others in the Comments have expressed interest in experimenting with heat and copper too. Another has explained that the metals adhere to each other at a molecular level under the influence of abrasion and heat, and this has also been used very successfully with zinc, resulting in a galvanised steel process that is quite different from the usual "hot dipping" into a bath of molten zinc. From my High School days, I remember that silver, copper and zinc are usually found in similar geological formations, and that brass is an amalgam of copper and tin, so there's an apparent attraction of some sort among those metals. Good luck with your experiments. No doubt it will be a fun time in your art studio among the trees 😀
I've seen these done by blacksmiths before. If you do the brass brush onto forged items it will give you brass high lights of raised areas of the forging and it looks really effective. A good way to make the brass finish last longer is to spray lacquer over it once it's cold 😊
"Hopefully that was useful to someone" - man, your videos are always useful to everyone. Even if I already knew all of the stuff you share I'd still watch and listen for lessons in patience and ingenuity!
Thanks Pask ! You're awesome and coherent as always. I've learned a blackening trick from an old blacksmith - Black Tea ! If you use many (10 or more) tea bags in a medium glass with hot water, the solution will "attack" the steel and darken it. The steel does not need to be heated for this, and it may take some coats and some waiting for the effect to fully appear - try it :)
There's a RUclips crafter that is as skilled with metal as you are with wood that uses these methods, and honestly it has me really excited to see you delve deeper into metalwork and smithing!
This reminds me of something back in the day i was 16 or 17. We had lots of different schools in our city and we had a changeover week amongst them. I was studying IT and did a swap to a school that teaches metal works such as smithing. At last year we were allowed to join two courses. But i remember on one of the years i did a ring as a quick side project as i finished my main one. I had observed a guy doing a ring using a long tapering pole and a forge + hammers. I basically copyed what he did and it in fact turned out in a ring. I was so proud of it so i put it on and went to wash my hands. For some weird reason there was bottle of cold blue solution next to the sink so i washed my hands in it (no much harm done as i washed my hands with tons of water). The ring had turned into black and that blew my mind. The (actual) students saw this, had a laugh and realized that the sink is not the correct place to store a bottle of cold blue. But accidental cold blue to the ring was what happened in the end. (Luckyly my hands are fine 10 years later).
About 30 years ago I made a new iron hook for a door lock. Then let it turn blue in the wood stove and finally thrown into the waste oil of a diesel engine. The metal shimmers in all colors and is still like the first day.
I have hot blue, rust blue, cold blue guns and knifes. Cold blue is easy to use compared to the others but real is more for small parts. A tip I found is heating the part before applying the cold blue along with multiple coats gives it that dark blue hue.
Great video as always fella!! My favourite is cold blue, using, gun blue gel/cream , it seems to black better and deeper, though heat blue is great for certain pieces. Appreciate the videos, i always learn something. Nice one!
A blacksmith showed me the brass brush finish many years ago. It's a fairly durable finish. After applying it, I didn't coat the piece with anything to protect it, and it's been on my keychain for many years. The brass fully wore off after about a year to a year and a half - but again, that's as a keychain.
With the blacking/bluing, if you give the peices a quick light scuff with fine steel wool or a scotch bite pad and do the process again it will smooth out the colours and give a deeper darker colour.
I've seen the method of coating with brass once somewhere. However, at that time, this method was not talked about, and I could only predict it. So it was great to know what I wanted to know in this video.
Very awesome video. Very nice project idea. It turned out very well and looks very nice and unique. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Keep Making. God Bless.
I do basically the same thing as the lindseed oil but with paste wax. Takes a bit of practice but makes a really nice blacksmith finish. Might have to give the brass one a try since I find that one neat as hell
I was thinking when the spray started that it was just going to catch fire. Probably best to use a pump action spray bottle of it, not the can, though I have only seen the spray can versions being outside the USA. I have hardened and blued blades before, though there I was using old gearbox oil, which worked well. Hardened and quenched in oil, then annealed and allowed to cool in the oil. they came outy light straw to totally black on the edges, and were very hard when dressed to a knife point, but survived very well in use, where they were running at 1000 RPM in a cutter.
@@SeanBZA I think the fact that it was a spray can contributed to the unevenness of the color in 2 ways. The lightest color seems to be in the 2 areas the spray was directed. First, as mentioned by BigMo, there's a high solvent content. The solvent will and did evaporate thus cooling the metal. Second, since the can is under pressure, the spray experiences adiabatic cooling when exiting the can, so it will be colder than ambient. These 2 points acting together cooled the spray contact area to the point where little to no coloring occurred.
I heated that one a little more than the others and that may be why it turned out blue. I've used wd40 a couple of times before though and it always seems to come out more blue. :)
Here's one more less known blackening technique: heat up the steel and then rub it with a cut onion. The onion juices will blacken the steel. Works a treat and smells nice too!
@@jimmyrustler8983 Interesting - I would guess the onion trick is making some kind of sulfides, as onions contain a lot of sulphur (hard to google for because all I get is how to cook onions in a cast iron pan). I assume the orange juice and vinegar tricks are an acid reaction
Thanks for the tips and tricks episode. Most importantly, the tip to get out there and experiment and practice on a scrap piece to see what it takes to get the look you want without ruining something you’ve invested quite a bit of time into making. 👍👍😎👍👍
And the tricks keep coming, and we keep learning it! Question? The longer you rob the brass brush on the heated metal, the thicker the brass coating will be? And will last longer?
I always enjoy your simple but effective educational videos. I almost exclusively use home made pine tar to treat tools. It gives great protection against rust and looks really nice. So the same way you put linseed oil on hot metal just use pine tar instead :)
The hot oil treatment is actually called oil blackening as you are basically causing successive layers of oil to become varnish and oxidize and turn various shades of brown and black. It is often mistakenly called hot blue, but the term hot blue is normally used to refer to a gunsmithing process of immersing steel parts in hot molten salt, which creates a very deep blue-black, durable coating, but is not something most people can do at home... There are also other processes of rusting steel and then converting into black oxide in a steam box or simply by boiling in water that are also "hot" processes, but are not nearly as easy as the oil black or cold blue approaches.
Very interesting Neil. I had never seen that technique before. Not that I would ever have a use for that but it's still good to know mate........... 👏👏👍👍😉😉
Another very informative video, one should be open to learning from others, and this video served as an example of what can be accomplished with relatively simple equipment. Thank you.
you can also do it with copper. i watched a blacksmith finish a leaf that way. he used a bit of copper pipe, since there arent too many copper brushes out there.
I prefer a much darker black coloring, so I usually use the hot bluing method, but I wait til the part is blue with heat, then drop it in used motor oil. It blackens up quite nicely.
Just some additional info... If you pre-heat the oil that you submerge the part into you actually get a better quench due to the Leidenfrost effect. This can help solidify the bluing.
Micheal cthulu here on RUclips makes giant swords, he's gone through a lot of these methods before trying to find the best most durable finishes for different projects. The brass brush coating is a favorite for aesthetics but it isn't very durable. Couple of things about the blackening with different oils, you can see a lot of the color from those is just the anodizing of heating the steel to blue. For the blue color you could simply heat it to the right temp, cool and coat with a varnish/clear coat. That said blacksmiths use beeswax and get a real nice black finish, I don't see them using much else so I reckon they've got good reason
I've tried to use linseed oil for some of my blacksmithing, and the finish is much harder to get even than a good wax finish. And it doesn't look as nice as a wax finish either. I've found you can use beeswax or even just candle (paraffin) wax. Both work really well.
I have a buddy who lives/works in the weapons bazaars in Darra Adam Khel, and he showed me a method of blackening steel gun parts using boiled orange juice, or boiled Apple Cider vinegar. Never seen that Brass plating trick though, that's really nice!
One of my supporters on Patreon told me about this brass finishing technique for steel. I'd never seen it before and thought I'd make a video to share it, along with some blackening (blueing) methods. It's a bit different to my usual videos but hopefully you enjoy it.:)
Question:you know where to get a cheap ring mandrel?(also I did enjoy😛)
I have seen the brass brush/wheel technique before very cool, also I do believe that cold blue will darken over time, I blued the metal part of a scratch awl a few years ago to experiment with the blueing product I had, it looked meh at first but after losing it and finding it again, its much better looking now, cant wait to see the new mallet
Check iut Laura Kampf's latest video for a similar result. She acheived what looks like electroplated copper finish but using onky a wipe-on chemical preparation. I'm unsure about how tough it is, but it looks nice.
Its worth to mention that bluing result may vary depending on steel type.
For more even results on small parts with the Black/Blue coating and possibly even with the brass you may have better luck heating with a Hot Plate. Either a cheapo one from a yard sale, thrift store or even a still super cheap one from online.
That's a new one for me! Never seen that brass coating before. Great tip.
Oh hey 😂
Gla you liked it! :)
I've heard of this "toast-on Brass" method before but this really helps to show EXACTLY what I should be doing so that's quite nice. Seems darned nice to me!
I like the brass trick. When I was at school my metal work teacher had a bath of old car engine oil in a heated tub. Once it was hot he dipped tools we had made into it once cooled they were like jet black , black jappaned super cool trick that has never left me. Thank you MR Peel.
Straight to the point no bs no silly music
Just good quality content
The brass on steel is mechanical plating. It actually is a bond at the molecular level. It’s also done with zinc on steel and then it’s mechanical galvanize. They add glass beads and a chemical to accelerate and improve the bonding. It’s done is a vibratory bowl. It can produce really thick zinc coatings.
I have seen all these (barring the rustbuster) used before, but it's nice to have them demonstrated clearly, coherently, and with good camera work. Cheers!
For those wanting to see them on a larger scale, I encountered them in various videos on michaelcthulu's channel.
He also has a trick for removing mill scale which, if I recall, is dunking the steel in vinegar for a day or so then rinsing/scrubbing it off. Works better if the vinegar is warm.
@Timbo Dewabem depends on the project whether or not the mill scale is desirable.
In Mike's case, it isn't - guy makes weird and wonderful giant swords.
I can see it being handy for outdoor furniture and fixings, though
Foor whatever reasoon, even if I knoow the chemistry behind it, bluing always looks like magic for me
When Clickspring does it the results are magical!
Your O key might be a bit sensitive 😁
@@briankappel6131
yooou think 😂
you can also wipe linseed oil on steel parts and bake them in an oven at 250°C for an hour. This process can get repeated mutiple times to get a thicker coating.
The result is an even, black surface which is rustproof and abrasion-proof
Sounds just like seasoning a cast-iron skillet.
I've never seen that brass brushing technique before. Really nice!
Long time huge fan of your work channel. Thanks for such a great video as always!
Thanks very much - glad you enjoyed it! :)
This is wonderfully coincidental. My partner and I were just discussing steel finishing processes yesterday, so to have your latest video be about exactly that is perfect timing! Thanks, Pask!
Maybe RUclips is watching YOU!
Seeing as it's owned by Google I really have no doubt about that.
As always some useful techniques, well presented. The brass brush one was definitely new to me. Not sure that I have a need for it right now but it'll certainly get tucked away in the memory bank :) Thanks Neil.
Thanks very much Dominic! Glad I'm not the only one who hadn't seen this before! :)
These videos are the only thing that can help me sleep at night and I’ve tried almost everything. They just knock me out so quick
I just love these sort of experiments. I especially like steel and timber projects, and to have the option of brass to add to the mix of visual effects is super exciting !
Yes very useful and thank you! Recently Laura Kampf took on copper plating with the electric method or the only method known until her and a chemist came up with a recipe to cold plate it. I’d love to see you take on copper plating as copper seems to be one of the most difficult due to its properties! Love the black and brass plating though, what a neat method to use on furniture and even for metal accents in wood, etc.
Copper plating is very easy. Copper sulphate solution, old copper tube sacrificial anode, car battery charger and away you go.
Thanks for all of your knowledge you share with us - sending love and prayers from eastern North Carolina.
You made a fantastic show of these methods.! Clear video of the pieces of interest. Clear and succinct descriptions of what you're doing over the videos. Good comparison later on at the end. Thanks! There's a plethora of awful how-to videos, and it occasionally makes me want to stop trying to find them on youtube. Your video is one of the types that keeps hope alive for youtube!
Loved it! Beautiful steel finishes for the black but I have a good version for the making copper patina on steel.
Clean steel, degrease, polish.
Work outdoors with goggles, chemical mask, nitrile gloves, full cover up of body no skin showing, and a gentle fan blowing fumes other direction. This is important.
Put beaker filled with 100 ml distilled water into a heavy bottomed steel or glass saucepan on the gas for both liquids to come to a rolling medium boil.
Add 10 grams copper oxide into beaker and stir with a pipette or neutral objects till mixed well.
Bring back to a gentle boil.
Add 20 ml of Formic Acid 85% to beaker - do not splash! Mix and let come back to a simmer.
This will now release toxic fumes so do not breathe this and do not splash hot acid on yourself.
When mixture turns blue, it is ready.
Remove from heat. Using a brush, brush mixture onto steel objects for instant copper patina.
Apply liberally, then immediately rinse in water tub or tap. Steel object gets a thin coating of copper.
If you don't rinse off, it continues to turn darker. Rinse well. Dry, and surface coat with lacquer matte or glossy finish.
There is a chemical way to give steel a brass patina but I don't have that formula yet. The brushing is too much work.
Formic acid is bee, wasp, and ant venom. If it falls on your skin, rinse with running water do not rub. Compress with baking soda and water paste. Do not inhale.
I had tried this in the past without success. Didn't realize that the brush needed to be solid brass, not coated. Thanks!
Very cool tip. Never heard of that Wizardry before but seems very simple in hindsight.
Thanks for passing along the tip Neil.
Thanks so much for this! I'm going to experiment with this more, like trying copper or any other fine wired metal I can get my hands on. This is so simple that I'm almost beating myself up for not thinking of trying this....
As always, great videos! You're probably the most underappreciated channel on RUclips (even when approaching the 1M mark). A true gem in the rough...
That's a good idea about the copper, although electroplating copper onto steel is very effective if you don't get the result you're looking for by using heat.
@@BrassLock that's right! But I have a larger supply of fire than I have of water... (I don't have running water in my tiny home, but I do have a couple hundred trees providing me with plenty of charcoal for forging and heat treating)
@@lukearts2954 It's interesting to hear about your mix of available resources, and how they can influence your art. Some others in the Comments have expressed interest in experimenting with heat and copper too.
Another has explained that the metals adhere to each other at a molecular level under the influence of abrasion and heat, and this has also been used very successfully with zinc, resulting in a galvanised steel process that is quite different from the usual "hot dipping" into a bath of molten zinc.
From my High School days, I remember that silver, copper and zinc are usually found in similar geological formations, and that brass is an amalgam of copper and tin, so there's an apparent attraction of some sort among those metals. Good luck with your experiments. No doubt it will be a fun time in your art studio among the trees 😀
I've seen these done by blacksmiths before. If you do the brass brush onto forged items it will give you brass high lights of raised areas of the forging and it looks really effective. A good way to make the brass finish last longer is to spray lacquer over it once it's cold 😊
"Hopefully that was useful to someone" - man, your videos are always useful to everyone. Even if I already knew all of the stuff you share I'd still watch and listen for lessons in patience and ingenuity!
Thanks Pask ! You're awesome and coherent as always.
I've learned a blackening trick from an old blacksmith - Black Tea ! If you use many (10 or more) tea bags in a medium glass with hot water, the solution will "attack" the steel and darken it. The steel does not need to be heated for this, and it may take some coats and some waiting for the effect to fully appear - try it :)
There's a RUclips crafter that is as skilled with metal as you are with wood that uses these methods, and honestly it has me really excited to see you delve deeper into metalwork and smithing!
This reminds me of something back in the day i was 16 or 17. We had lots of different schools in our city and we had a changeover week amongst them. I was studying IT and did a swap to a school that teaches metal works such as smithing. At last year we were allowed to join two courses. But i remember on one of the years i did a ring as a quick side project as i finished my main one. I had observed a guy doing a ring using a long tapering pole and a forge + hammers. I basically copyed what he did and it in fact turned out in a ring. I was so proud of it so i put it on and went to wash my hands. For some weird reason there was bottle of cold blue solution next to the sink so i washed my hands in it (no much harm done as i washed my hands with tons of water). The ring had turned into black and that blew my mind. The (actual) students saw this, had a laugh and realized that the sink is not the correct place to store a bottle of cold blue. But accidental cold blue to the ring was what happened in the end. (Luckyly my hands are fine 10 years later).
About 30 years ago I made a new iron hook for a door lock. Then let it turn blue in the wood stove and finally thrown into the waste oil of a diesel engine. The metal shimmers in all colors and is still like the first day.
Thank you for the technique!!! I was not aware of the brass method, it looks awesome!
Awesome trick with the brass! Thanks for sharing this.
Wow! That's very useful information. Thank you!
Grass wool works really well if your doing it by hand almost looks polished. Great video.
I didn’t know about the brass technique. So thanks I will be using that. Love your channel it’s never boring. It you do your own editing props to you.
Superb video- I’ve added this to my saved videos because I know I’ll refer to this later in life.
I put my steel knives in vinegar, it gives them a nice black color and protects them against rust pretty well and it super easy to touch up.
Very interesting. Always enjoy your how to videos.
Really nice. Brass is such a cool finish.
It's perfect timing! I'm building a wooden chest, and I needed to black/blue the hardware to go with the old/antique look. thanks mate!
I have hot blue, rust blue, cold blue guns and knifes. Cold blue is easy to use compared to the others but real is more for small parts. A tip I found is heating the part before applying the cold blue along with multiple coats gives it that dark blue hue.
Wow! Sometimes silly little tips can be so useful and helpful to others. Really enjoyed the brass coating method and plan to use it.
Love the brass trick. Never seen it before
Great video as always fella!!
My favourite is cold blue, using, gun blue gel/cream , it seems to black better and deeper, though heat blue is great for certain pieces.
Appreciate the videos, i always learn something.
Nice one!
The brass transfer method is new to me, ill be trying it tomorrow for sure!! Cheers!!
A blacksmith showed me the brass brush finish many years ago.
It's a fairly durable finish. After applying it, I didn't coat the piece with anything to protect it, and it's been on my keychain for many years. The brass fully wore off after about a year to a year and a half - but again, that's as a keychain.
With the blacking/bluing, if you give the peices a quick light scuff with fine steel wool or a scotch bite pad and do the process again it will smooth out the colours and give a deeper darker colour.
I've seen the method of coating with brass once somewhere.
However, at that time, this method was not talked about, and I could only predict it.
So it was great to know what I wanted to know in this video.
I'd say the technique worked really well Neil. Both looked cool. Great video mate 👍
Very awesome video. Very nice project idea. It turned out very well and looks very nice and unique. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Keep Making. God Bless.
I do basically the same thing as the lindseed oil but with paste wax. Takes a bit of practice but makes a really nice blacksmith finish. Might have to give the brass one a try since I find that one neat as hell
So you out the brass on the steel and then do the boiled linseed oil/minwax?
Have you ever mixed the boiled linseed oil and wax together?
looks great and im looking forward to the mallet
WD-40 has such a high amount of solvent in it I’m surprised it worked at all, but I really like the blue color.
Thanks for sharing this.
I was thinking when the spray started that it was just going to catch fire. Probably best to use a pump action spray bottle of it, not the can, though I have only seen the spray can versions being outside the USA. I have hardened and blued blades before, though there I was using old gearbox oil, which worked well. Hardened and quenched in oil, then annealed and allowed to cool in the oil. they came outy light straw to totally black on the edges, and were very hard when dressed to a knife point, but survived very well in use, where they were running at 1000 RPM in a cutter.
@@SeanBZA I think the fact that it was a spray can contributed to the unevenness of the color in 2 ways. The lightest color seems to be in the 2 areas the spray was directed. First, as mentioned by BigMo, there's a high solvent content. The solvent will and did evaporate thus cooling the metal. Second, since the can is under pressure, the spray experiences adiabatic cooling when exiting the can, so it will be colder than ambient. These 2 points acting together cooled the spray contact area to the point where little to no coloring occurred.
I heated that one a little more than the others and that may be why it turned out blue. I've used wd40 a couple of times before though and it always seems to come out more blue. :)
Neat brass plating technique!
That 'brassing' method is terrific, completely new to me! Thanks Neil, that was very interesting. Cheers mate and stay healthy.
wow those methods were amazing. i didn’t knew any of them.
thanks for sharing! 👏
The brass is definitely something I will try, thanks
Thank you as I had not seen this technique and am quite impressed. Well done.
Great tip and a great video!
I have a couple unused brass brushes and some steel scrap laying around, definitely gonna give this a try!
Nice trick! Didn't knew this one! thanks for sharing it!
Cool way to get a brass look I have saw the black methods before
Thanks for sharing
worth sharing, thanks. enjoy your many videos. I've always wondered why bluing is blackening.
That's super cool! The brass coating, that is. Will try it!
Lucky us we got to know a new technique. Thanks man.
Excellent! I hadn't seen those methods before, they look quite easy, especially the brash brush and cold blueing.
Here's one more less known blackening technique: heat up the steel and then rub it with a cut onion. The onion juices will blacken the steel. Works a treat and smells nice too!
Boiled orange juice, or boiled white vinegar will also do this 👍
Haven't tried that one but will give it a go - thanks! :)
@@jimmyrustler8983 Interesting - I would guess the onion trick is making some kind of sulfides, as onions contain a lot of sulphur (hard to google for because all I get is how to cook onions in a cast iron pan). I assume the orange juice and vinegar tricks are an acid reaction
i did something like that in high school Neil,only i cut out a heart out of 1/2 steel plate then coated it with brass welding rods and polished it up
Thanks for the tips and tricks episode. Most importantly, the tip to get out there and experiment and practice on a scrap piece to see what it takes to get the look you want without ruining something you’ve invested quite a bit of time into making. 👍👍😎👍👍
And the tricks keep coming, and we keep learning it! Question? The longer you rob the brass brush on the heated metal, the thicker the brass coating will be? And will last longer?
9500 views in one hour, outstanding and well deserved.
I have *never* seen or heard of this method. It's going into my library. 👍
Thanks for sharing this Neil. Love your work man.
What a cool idea, ill try it. Thanks Paul
Pretty nice finish. Gotta try it.
I always enjoy your simple but effective educational videos.
I almost exclusively use home made pine tar to treat tools. It gives great protection against rust and looks really nice. So the same way you put linseed oil on hot metal just use pine tar instead :)
The hot oil treatment is actually called oil blackening as you are basically causing successive layers of oil to become varnish and oxidize and turn various shades of brown and black. It is often mistakenly called hot blue, but the term hot blue is normally used to refer to a gunsmithing process of immersing steel parts in hot molten salt, which creates a very deep blue-black, durable coating, but is not something most people can do at home... There are also other processes of rusting steel and then converting into black oxide in a steam box or simply by boiling in water that are also "hot" processes, but are not nearly as easy as the oil black or cold blue approaches.
Very interesting Neil. I had never seen that technique before. Not that I would ever have a use for that but it's still good to know mate........... 👏👏👍👍😉😉
Another very informative video, one should be open to learning from others, and this video served as an example of what can be accomplished with relatively simple equipment. Thank you.
Nice job! I watch your channel every day waiting for new stuff and new ideas. Well done sir! Best wishes!!
Cool, never seen that brass technique before
Happy to see you get into more and more metal work. Your vids are top notch and helped me up my woodworking. Thanks Pask.
Thank you for showing it i will use this technic in the future
you can also do it with copper. i watched a blacksmith finish a leaf that way. he used a bit of copper pipe, since there arent too many copper brushes out there.
It's almost like paint-on brass. Very cool.
Great tips considering different situations may warrant alternate techniques, I love the brass hack!
I prefer a much darker black coloring, so I usually use the hot bluing method, but I wait til the part is blue with heat, then drop it in used motor oil. It blackens up quite nicely.
Thanks for the knowledge, Pask Makes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's super cool!
This is great, I especially liked learning how to blue without the cold bluing agent. Going to try this on a cobblers hammer I refurbished.
That was pretty neat. Thank you for sharing!
Just some additional info... If you pre-heat the oil that you submerge the part into you actually get a better quench due to the Leidenfrost effect. This can help solidify the bluing.
Micheal cthulu here on RUclips makes giant swords, he's gone through a lot of these methods before trying to find the best most durable finishes for different projects. The brass brush coating is a favorite for aesthetics but it isn't very durable.
Couple of things about the blackening with different oils, you can see a lot of the color from those is just the anodizing of heating the steel to blue. For the blue color you could simply heat it to the right temp, cool and coat with a varnish/clear coat.
That said blacksmiths use beeswax and get a real nice black finish, I don't see them using much else so I reckon they've got good reason
I've tried to use linseed oil for some of my blacksmithing, and the finish is much harder to get even than a good wax finish. And it doesn't look as nice as a wax finish either. I've found you can use beeswax or even just candle (paraffin) wax. Both work really well.
I had never heard about these techniques before! You are always great with these interesting processes
Great tips! Hot vinegar is another method to blue carbon steel
Nice. I've used this idea before, I first saw it on GS Tongs channel, Glen brass brushes the tongs he makes, gives a great look.
That's Cool!!! I have never seen this before!!! Thank You!!!! 😎👍🤘
Great video!! Got straight to the point. Loved the absence of music. Thank you.
Very beautiful !
I have a buddy who lives/works in the weapons bazaars in Darra Adam Khel, and he showed me a method of blackening steel gun parts using boiled orange juice, or boiled Apple Cider vinegar.
Never seen that Brass plating trick though, that's really nice!
Absolutely worth sharing! Thank you!
Definitely useful information. Thanks for putting that together.
You can also tin steel by heating to a red heat, cover it with sal amoniac and then touch it with the tin!
Thanks for that. Something new to play with while lockdown continues.
Great video. Love the brass trick.
Got to give this a try.
Thanks for sharing and God bless.