Both of these are/were chemical solutions for creating a black finish on a
variety of metals, most commonly Brass.

Apparently Blacken-It has a finite shelf-life: A not-that-old bottle of it
is about as powerful as pure water at changing the color of a piece of
cleaned brass but the last few drops of the 30+ year-old bottle of Hobby
Black are still quite active and produce exactly the desired effect.

SO ...

I've found several sources for Blacken-It but a Google search turned up only
a few older references to Hobby Black. Is it really no longer made? [I'm
sure we'd have the CPSC and the EPA to thank for that]?

Are there any substitutes for Hobby Black that are more effective and longer
lasting than Blacken-It?

TIA
Norm

On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:36:30 GMT, "Norm Dresner" wrote:


Are there any substitutes for Hobby Black that are more effective and longer
lasting than Blacken-It?

TIA
Norm


Yes. All of these brass blackening products have a common ingredient: selenium
dioxide.
Go to a gun shop and get some Birchwood Casey gun bluing, or any other brand for that
matter. You may be able to get it at any good sporting goods shop that have
firearms, or even a discount store such as K-Mart. Check local hardware stores too.
you'll fid it somewhere. Gun bluing. That's what you want
Another source is flea markets that specialize in antiques and such. There are a
number of brass blackeners sold under various names in those places as well. Again,
the thing is the selenium dioxide, doesn't matter what brand it is.
Selenium dioxide is poisonous, so handle it carefully. The "shelf life" is a function
of the amount of SeO2 in solution and the number of times you use the product. I
never return the used portion to the bottle and only use what I need to blacken a
piece. Never immerse the piece in the solution in the bottle, the solution will
weaken quickly if you do.

Froggy,

Froggy @ thepond..com wrote in message
...
On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:36:30 GMT, "Norm Dresner" wrote:


Are there any substitutes for Hobby Black that are more effective and
longer
lasting than Blacken-It?

TIA
Norm


Yes. All of these brass blackening products have a common ingredient:
selenium
dioxide.
Go to a gun shop and get some Birchwood Casey gun bluing, or any other
brand for that
matter. You may be able to get it at any good sporting goods shop that
have
firearms, or even a discount store such as K-Mart. Check local hardware
stores too.
you'll fid it somewhere. Gun bluing. That's what you want
Another source is flea markets that specialize in antiques and such.
There are a
number of brass blackeners sold under various names in those places as
well. Again,
the thing is the selenium dioxide, doesn't matter what brand it is.
Selenium dioxide is poisonous, so handle it carefully. The "shelf life" is
a function
of the amount of SeO2 in solution and the number of times you use the
product. I
never return the used portion to the bottle and only use what I need to
blacken a
piece. Never immerse the piece in the solution in the bottle, the solution
will
weaken quickly if you do.

Froggy,

The bottle of Blacken-It I just tossed is less than 5 years old and was just
about half-full. I'd most recently used it about a year ago, pouring an
ounce or two into a tray to treat some parts and tossed that solution when I
was finished with it. The stuff in the bottle is still a nice blue-green
color but it's got no activity.

I'll check out a gun shop over the weekend.

Thanks for the info

Norm

Blacken-it is not as effective as ANY of the others commonly
available; I'm not sure if it's a shelf life or a chemistry
problem.

There are two types of Selenium compounds, one is an acid the other
a salt, I forget which. One could look up MSDS on all product names.

For brass, I prefer gun blueing, just the standard hardware store
variety. On brass, it quickly forms a nasty black, non-adherent smut.
Keep rubbing, without quite so much on the rag.

Large areas (like clock dials) - not so much good luck at all.
One could also Silver plate, then capture some Sulfur-bearing
gases from a macrobiotic source, which might quickly darken it.

/mark


Norm Dresner wrote:

Froggy @ thepond..com wrote in message
...

On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:36:30 GMT, "Norm Dresner" wrote:


Are there any substitutes for Hobby Black that are more effective and
longer
lasting than Blacken-It?

TIA
Norm


Yes. All of these brass blackening products have a common ingredient:
selenium
dioxide.
Go to a gun shop and get some Birchwood Casey gun bluing, or any other
brand for that
matter. You may be able to get it at any good sporting goods shop
that have
firearms, or even a discount store such as K-Mart. Check local
hardware stores too.
you'll fid it somewhere. Gun bluing. That's what you want
Another source is flea markets that specialize in antiques and such.
There are a
number of brass blackeners sold under various names in those places as
well. Again,
the thing is the selenium dioxide, doesn't matter what brand it is.
Selenium dioxide is poisonous, so handle it carefully. The "shelf
life" is a function
of the amount of SeO2 in solution and the number of times you use the
product. I
never return the used portion to the bottle and only use what I need
to blacken a
piece. Never immerse the piece in the solution in the bottle, the
solution will
weaken quickly if you do.

Froggy,


The bottle of Blacken-It I just tossed is less than 5 years old and was
just about half-full. I'd most recently used it about a year ago,
pouring an ounce or two into a tray to treat some parts and tossed that
solution when I was finished with it. The stuff in the bottle is still
a nice blue-green color but it's got no activity.

I'll check out a gun shop over the weekend.

Thanks for the info

Norm

"Norm Dresner" wrote in message
...
Both of these are/were chemical solutions for creating a black finish on a
variety of metals, most commonly Brass.

Apparently Blacken-It has a finite shelf-life: A not-that-old bottle of
it is about as powerful as pure water at changing the color of a piece of
cleaned brass but the last few drops of the 30+ year-old bottle of Hobby
Black are still quite active and produce exactly the desired effect.

SO ...

I've found several sources for Blacken-It but a Google search turned up
only a few older references to Hobby Black. Is it really no longer made?
[I'm sure we'd have the CPSC and the EPA to thank for that]?

Are there any substitutes for Hobby Black that are more effective and
longer lasting than Blacken-It?

TIA
Norm


Back in January, I was looking for an alternative to Blacken-It and several
people suggested Gun Bluing. I finally managed to find a gun shop that had
some in stock and discovered that at least the brand they carry only works
on ferrous metals (steel) and not on Brass, Copper, Silver, etc.
Unfortunately my main working metals are those so (at least that brand of)
Gun Bluing is useless to me. Any other suggestions?

TIA
Norm

Birchwood Casey Brass Black.

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/sto...ING+PR ODUCTS

scroll down the page



"Norm Dresner" wrote in message
...
"Norm Dresner" wrote in message
...
Both of these are/were chemical solutions for creating a black finish on
a variety of metals, most commonly Brass.

Apparently Blacken-It has a finite shelf-life: A not-that-old bottle of
it is about as powerful as pure water at changing the color of a piece of
cleaned brass but the last few drops of the 30+ year-old bottle of Hobby
Black are still quite active and produce exactly the desired effect.

SO ...

I've found several sources for Blacken-It but a Google search turned up
only a few older references to Hobby Black. Is it really no longer made?
[I'm sure we'd have the CPSC and the EPA to thank for that]?

Are there any substitutes for Hobby Black that are more effective and
longer lasting than Blacken-It?

TIA
Norm


Back in January, I was looking for an alternative to Blacken-It and
several people suggested Gun Bluing. I finally managed to find a gun shop
that had some in stock and discovered that at least the brand they carry
only works on ferrous metals (steel) and not on Brass, Copper, Silver,
etc. Unfortunately my main working metals are those so (at least that
brand of) Gun Bluing is useless to me. Any other suggestions?

TIA
Norm

On Sun, 05 Feb 2006 15:46:23 GMT, "Norm Dresner"
wrote:

"Norm Dresner" wrote in message
...
Both of these are/were chemical solutions for creating a black finish on a
variety of metals, most commonly Brass.

Apparently Blacken-It has a finite shelf-life: A not-that-old bottle of
it is about as powerful as pure water at changing the color of a piece of
cleaned brass but the last few drops of the 30+ year-old bottle of Hobby
Black are still quite active and produce exactly the desired effect.

SO ...

I've found several sources for Blacken-It but a Google search turned up
only a few older references to Hobby Black. Is it really no longer made?
[I'm sure we'd have the CPSC and the EPA to thank for that]?

Are there any substitutes for Hobby Black that are more effective and
longer lasting than Blacken-It?

TIA
Norm


Back in January, I was looking for an alternative to Blacken-It and several
people suggested Gun Bluing. I finally managed to find a gun shop that had
some in stock and discovered that at least the brand they carry only works
on ferrous metals (steel) and not on Brass, Copper, Silver, etc.
Unfortunately my main working metals are those so (at least that brand of)
Gun Bluing is useless to me. Any other suggestions?

TIA
Norm

If you had been in a good gun shop..they would have had this on the
shelf

http://www.knifekits.com/store/s-pag...main.htm~smain

Ive used it many times when building black powder firearms

Works pretty good.

Gunner




"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them;
the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."
- Proverbs 22:3

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 05 Feb 2006 15:46:23 GMT, "Norm Dresner"
wrote:

Back in January, I was looking for an alternative to Blacken-It and
several
people suggested Gun Bluing. I finally managed to find a gun shop that
had
some in stock and discovered that at least the brand they carry only works
on ferrous metals (steel) and not on Brass, Copper, Silver, etc.
Unfortunately my main working metals are those so (at least that brand of)
Gun Bluing is useless to me. Any other suggestions?

TIA
Norm

If you had been in a good gun shop..they would have had this on the
shelf

http://www.knifekits.com/store/s-pag...main.htm~smain

Ive used it many times when building black powder firearms

Works pretty good.

Gunner


It's the closest Gun Shop around and not very good since it didn't even
have Gun Bluing the first time I went there.

This looks ideal. Thanks

Norm

Hi:

Hobby Black was marketed by RAC Distributors. A short
seach reveals the manufacturer as Birchwood-Casey. They
have several metal finishing solutions which may be used as
substitutes, dependent on desired finish and base metal.
Some examples are shown on my site.

For more details with methods and extensive discussion of
problems and solutions, see first site below in METHODS/
METAL FINISHING.

Hope this helps.

Thank you,

Budb

Author of:

MODELRAILROAD TECHNICAL INFORMATION
http://www.geocities.com/budb3/

PROTOTYPE TECHNICAL INFO FOR MODELRAILROADERS
(Revised. New address)
http://www.geocities.com/budb3/pindex

Moderator of:
MR TECHNICAL HELP GROUP
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mrtechhelp

COUPLER HELP GROUP
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mrcouplers


Norm Dresner wrote:
"Norm Dresner" wrote in message
...
Both of these are/were chemical solutions for creating a black finish on a
variety of metals, most commonly Brass.

Apparently Blacken-It has a finite shelf-life: A not-that-old bottle of
it is about as powerful as pure water at changing the color of a piece of
cleaned brass but the last few drops of the 30+ year-old bottle of Hobby
Black are still quite active and produce exactly the desired effect.

SO ...

I've found several sources for Blacken-It but a Google search turned up
only a few older references to Hobby Black. Is it really no longer made?
[I'm sure we'd have the CPSC and the EPA to thank for that]?

Are there any substitutes for Hobby Black that are more effective and
longer lasting than Blacken-It?

TIA
Norm


Back in January, I was looking for an alternative to Blacken-It and several
people suggested Gun Bluing. I finally managed to find a gun shop that had
some in stock and discovered that at least the brand they carry only works
on ferrous metals (steel) and not on Brass, Copper, Silver, etc.
Unfortunately my main working metals are those so (at least that brand of)
Gun Bluing is useless to me. Any other suggestions?

TIA
Norm

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi:

Hobby Black was marketed by RAC Distributors. A short
seach reveals the manufacturer as Birchwood-Casey. They
have several metal finishing solutions which may be used as
substitutes, dependent on desired finish and base metal.
Some examples are shown on my site.

For more details with methods and extensive discussion of
problems and solutions, see first site below in METHODS/
METAL FINISHING.


Thanks -- there's some really good examples of how the various stuff works
specifically at
http://www.geocities.com/budb3/arts/meth/mtlbkn.html
for anyone who wants to go right to the page being referenced.

Norm