Parkerizing is rust. It is a controlled rust. Simply better than not.
Martin

Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


wrote:
On Sep 30, 4:40 am, Phil Hansen wrote:
What is the process called that gives that blue color to steel. Looked
at parkerizing but it does not seem to be the thing. I remember
something about heating up a part and quenching in some sort of oil.
Want to take old bolts etc, clean off the rust and then coat them with
this black coating/covering/protection.
Any help appreciated

******

Commercial hardware uses a black oxide process, you can get kits to do
that from various online suppliers. Not particularly rust resistant,
more for appearance. Parkerizing isn't really that rust resistant,
but the treated parts are usually dunked in various rust-preventative
baths and the porous structure retains it. Or you can paint it with
baking enamel like the Brits do with their small arms, very durable.

What you remember was an old blacksmithing process, heat your cleaned
iron article up and wipe it down with linseed oil so that it smokes
off, repeat until it's the color you want. Also not particularly rust
resistant, but better than bare metal.

Cold blues are mostly for appearance, Oxpho-Blue from Brownell's works
pretty well, but will still rust if allowed to.

If you've just GOT to have something that will prevent rust, look at
LPS 3, this is like spray-on cosmoline and is good for quite a number
of days under salt water. The surfaces you apply it to have to be
rust-free to start with, though. Check out www.lpslabs.com for spec
sheets.

Stan



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