antique metal finish?

[nekshot]

while we are stumbling around on various metal finishes does anyone know how Dave Price (a true artist) gets that grayish old patina on some of his rifles, and while we are peeking around at his secrets I wonder how he gets that black stain to work on his wood?
nekshot

[Tokarev]

Might be one of the lead based formulas. I can try to find grey recipe if you interested.

[220swiftfn]

while we are stumbling around on various metal finishes does anyone know how Dave Price (a true artist) gets that grayish old patina on some of his rifles, and while we are peeking around at his secrets I wonder how he gets that black stain to work on his wood?
nekshot

I believe that what you're talking about is called "French Greying", and there's many ways to get it, from taking a blued surface DOWN to grey, or stopping a rust blue AT grey......


Dan

[Michael J. Spangler]

http://www.spanglercustomknives.com/Spangler_Custom_Knives/Gallery/Pages/Hunters.html#10

If you're taking about something like on the link above?

I finish a blade to about 400 grit then I use a wool dauber or similar to dab cold blue on the blade in a splotch random pattern. I use a heat gun to help dry it and the warmth helps the cold blue work.
Then I suspend the blade in Clorox bleach for about 10 minutes.
At this point it had a good 1/16" thick layer of rust covering it.
I scrub it down with 0000 steel wool or with 1500 grit paper until the rust is gone. Maybe a minute of cleaning.
Rinse with acetone
Back to the cold blue. Back to the bleach.
Repeat until you have the desired finish.

Depending on my desired result I will either scrub with steel wool or paper listed above. The steel wool leaves it a bit darker and more grey. The 1500 paper brightens up the high spots and leaves the deep etched spots nice and dark. It gives a nice contrast.

Hope that helped.

[nekshot]

thanks for your input, I will play around with this for sure. I did not know where to start but this is a a place to begin. I like your antique knife finish and nice workmanship on everything I saw. I have a yearning to try for older look on some of my projects.
nekshot

[Michael J. Spangler]

Thank you and you're welcome.
Keep us updated on your progress.

[waksupi]

I use a cold blue, and use steel wool to even the color.