The hot metal is an older RCBS die set that I had to anneal so I could mutilate the original (243) into my 8x51. I did all the lathe work and some drill press work and the red paint acts like it is part of the metal. All I did was sprinkled red on the top of die and left air cool. So if we want to paint some hand tools, I would not be in a puddle of fear over baking in a stove as you will not need it from "my" experience. Yours might be different. Kinda like this stuff.