Letter 1039

Blackening Stainless Steel Chain Mail

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I'm in the process of making a "Chain mail" (that's a type of medieval armor) shirt using spring tempered 302 stainless steel. What I want to do is turn the whole thing BLACK! (or as black as I possibly can...deep deep blue is acceptable).

Now here's my problem:

I don't know ANYTHING about how to do Blackening, not to mention how to do it to stainless steel without weakening the steel!!

What I'm looking for a simple way of blackening it, or someone who can blacken it for me at a low cost, without degrading the steel's strength, temper, or corrosion resistance!!!

!!!PLEASE HELP!!!

My thanks in advance for your assistance with my project problem,

Sincerely,

Andrew

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Blackening processes usually involve very hot caustic soda, plus nitrates, perhaps sulphides. They are not for the person who doesn't know anything about metal finishing. Hopefully a shop that does blackening of stainless will respond and offer to process the chain mail for you. If not, check plating shops in our Jobshops Directory..

Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

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Andrew,

The cost of setup would exceed the cost of commercial black. It is a significant safety concern also.

Black oxide will be the cheapest. Find a shop that does it on stainless (it is a different chemical than plain steel). Normally it is oiled. A sprayed on black wax over the black oxide will give it a very nice deep black high gloss finish.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

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Our company manufactures the water features and fountains that you see at places like Disneyland, Universal Studios, etc. To blacken SSTL hardware, we use a special matte black patina process from a company in Glendale, CA called Tri-Ess Science. You may want to give them a call for advice.

Bill Newton

Ed. note: Tr-Ess is apparently no longer in business. Sorry.

Andrew, look into gun blue (Birchwood-Casey [link is to product info at Amazon]). You can buy it relatively cheap and it works great. I suggest soaking the mail in the stuff for at least an hour, while stirring the mail around so that everything gets covered. You can buy the stuff in the little bottles and try it out, and if you like, then just search online and get a bigger bottle. Best of luck. Hunter

Hunter Jones
Dragon's Guard - Nashville, Tennessee

You will find that gun bluing does not work on stainless steel although gun smithing suppliers offer some options. Personally I would suggest unless you have experience with these coatings that you have it professionally done or do lots of practice on scraps.

Sean Duval
- Yuma, Arizona

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Yes, I would like to make my shiny stainless black. Why would I want to do that you may ask? Well, I'm an amateur chainmailer, yes like medieval chainmail. I'm going to be making a bracelet and I want shiny and blackened rings, because it looks better. I've found 2 different ways to do this, heat the stainless to 1200 Fahrenheit or use a bluing agent, something like they use to color gun barrels. The heating up part I can probably do, if a propane torch can reach that high. the bluing agent, well, I wouldn't need that much, or I think I wouldn't. any help would be appreciated.

Nicholas Fuller
Student - Bullhead City, Arizona

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Hi,
I am a medieval reinactor. I recently removed the galvanization from my chainmail, leaving mild steel. I am currently researching the best way to blacken it to prevent rusting. I have heard that broiling it with Pam olive oil spray can work, but seems time (and oven) intensive. The other method I have heard of is tannic acid, which from what I have heard, leaves a very dark grey rather than black coat, which is fine by me. How would I go about this? Boil my chainmail with acorns or teabags for a few hours? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ben Mudd

Benjamin Mudd
Washington University Student - Saint Louis, Missouri

March 27, 2008

I was informed by my information being falsely used.
The previous response was not by me; however, it was received from a computer that I had used. The cookies were enabled, and automatically filled in my information.

As far as blackening the steel, a propane flame such as that from a stove will only distort the color and put a film of soot over the metal. A special type of flux or acidic compound is needed to obtain the desired coloration.

Aaron Svirbly
- Masury Ohio

March 2, 2009

50 gm sulfuric acid, 200 gm sodium thiosulfate, 1 liter water, 30 deg C this should work

Ron Sandusky
- St Charles Iowa