Iron John Logan Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 As a long time swordsmith that specializes in 18th and 19th century swords the blue of blue and gilt blades has always been an elusive process I'd love to be able to replicate! I have tried everything with no luck of creating the beautiful translucent bright blue as seen on originals. While I have heard many times its the heat blue left from vaporizing the mercury from amalgam gilding I have had a hunch it is actually some kind of applied treatment as it is often not an overall coverage or has sculpted moldings or other details between blue and un blued areas. Found this image of a Georgian period naval dirk on google that exhibits this well. Zoom in an you can almost see brush strokes! Now, what in the world is this process?!? Or how can I replicate it? www.ironjohnlogan.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Longmire Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 I suspect it's a kind of cold bluing compound. I have no idea how they did it, but since I've seen it in combination with gilding that kind of blows the amalgam heat bluing theory. Since the gold is still there, that is. I've never researched it, and that may change... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanM Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 I'm not sure this article can help,it does give the process information though..... https://www.ganoksin.com/article/charcoal-dust-bluing/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaro Petrina Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 Why not some type phosphating.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron John Logan Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 (edited) After posting above went down the rabbit hole and rediscovered a historical paper that mentioned "luster washes" for steel to mimic temper colors. While most of them look pretty toxic found one that is safe that shows promising results. Sodium thiosulfate and iron nitrate dilute in hot water. Soak clean steel in hot solution to build up grey coating, rinse, heat with torch, presto. More experiments to do! The photo shows 600 grit trizac on 1080 steel. The bare steel to the right you can see is barely straw while the luster wash looks much more advanced in heating. Current formula by weight: .5g iron nitrate 3.5g sodium thiosulfate 8oz almost boiling water Maybe 5 minute soak. Checking every 30 seconds or so, the solution did seam to lay down a coating on the surface of the steel. As this coating (iron sulfides? I'm not a chemist) grew it changed color from straw to a nice yellow color but then turned grey and looked etched. Deciding it was done I rinsed it and warmed with the torch. Direct flame blushes the surface color but need to heat through to get it to last. Treated surface advanced through normal temper color range at much lower temperatures (no measurement) than untreated steel. Cooled in water, stable to finger rubbing and fingernail Edited February 22 by Iron John Logan 3 www.ironjohnlogan.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron John Logan Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 53 minutes ago, Jaro Petrina said: Why not some type phosphating.... I've done Parkerising (a historical phosphating) with the D battery and paint stripper trick with good results. Buts only color comes from impurities and the oil you impregnate it with otherwise it is just grey. More a 20th century wwi/wwii thing anyways not these bright blues we see early 19th century 1 www.ironjohnlogan.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaro Petrina Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 2 minutes ago, Iron John Logan said: I've done Parkerising (a historical phosphating) with the D battery and paint stripper trick with good results. Buts only color comes from impurities and the oil you impregnate it with otherwise it is just grey. More a 20th century wwi/wwii thing anyways not these bright blues we see early 19th century I see. I see blueish phosphating on some american civil war guns and revolvers, it would be interesting to know how they did it. Good experiment above! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Longmire Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 11 minutes ago, Jaro Petrina said: I see blueish phosphating on some american civil war guns and revolvers That's charcoal bluing, which is very pretty indeed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron John Logan Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 3 hours ago, DanM said: I'm not sure this article can help,it does give the process information though..... https://www.ganoksin.com/article/charcoal-dust-bluing/ Definitely will be trying this! 2 www.ironjohnlogan.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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