doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Refinishing Damascus: I can't get them to turn bla

For the most part, I like the coloring without the logwood. Although, Dr Gaddy did mention some hard cases that logwood helped with.

Toby, that is very good info, I had no idea the black oxide would form at that low a temp. Common practise seems to have always been for boiling or steaming. Perhaps the main reason was for the parts to dry quickly.
I have not done any rust bluing for some time, but when I did, I am in the country & have spring water. I could not get a decent job using that water so just bought the bottles of distilled water like is used for steam irons etc. Current price on this is less than $1.00 a gal at my local Wal-Mart. My wife still gets it for her high priced steam iron.

I think Toby's 92 degrees is celsius @ 198 fahrenheit

Hugh, that makes more sense, right below boiling. I have done a few like that and it doesn't seem to make a difference than having it a rolling boil.

After taking the advice of the responders, my first boil turned out perfect. Barrels black as coal. I bought a two-burner gas stove and filled the tank with distilled water. It took about 4 minutes for the things to turn black. The water was at a low boil. Thanks again.

Ed

So what advice was the one that worked?

Hotter boil (better hear source) and distilled water.

Good, I'm glad I hit the nail for you. Isn't this place great?