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Blueing 20-gauge cold rolled steel

I am making fish out of 20 gauge cold rolled steel. I have been painting them with translucent auto paint and they look great, but I want to decorate them with heat. I would welcome any advice how to create different degrees of blue and other colors with heat.

Graham Hill
Artist - Atlanta, GA, USA
2006

Heat coloring usually applies to copper rather than steel, Graham. See letter 2662 for some nice examples. But letter 16912 claims coloring of steel and offers a temperature vs. color chart, and letter 2531 claims to show and example. Good luck.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
2006

2006

Heat tinting can be used on iron,steel and even stainless steel or chromium plate. Try to buy old Fishlock's Book on Metal Colouring(really best of all English language books on that subject, 60 USD or more),or book by Angier, Firearm Blueing and Browning ⇦ on eBay or Amazon or AbeBooks [affil links],15-20 USD. Hope it helps and good luck!

Goran Budija
- Cerovski vrh Croatia

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