Heat treating S/S

[stu1873]

I will be getting a cheapish Nemesis clone from fasttech around the end of the month and have seen this video of a modded genuine Nemesis on Youtube

I think the blue tube with the S/S caps and locking ring looks the nuts!

Has anyone done any kind of heat treatment to steel to change the colour (anodise) it. I am not sure on how to get such an even finish on steel.

[dnglos]

I saved this comment from some forum or other:

if you apply heat to SS you can have various colors @ various temperature's.
any of the top 3 could be described as Gold!

Colors Formed @ Approx Temperature C

pale yellow 290
straw yellow 340
dark yellow 370
brown 390
purple brown 420
dark purple 450
blue 540
dark blue 600

So far I've tried torching a couple of SS drip tips, turning them a kind of bronze colour.

[markm]

Unless you can bake it in an oven then its going to be hard to get the colour perfectly even,
But a mix of colours can look stunning, especially when freshly done.
Bear in mind the depth of coating gets thicker the hotter you go, the yellows look great but
Are polished off fairly quickly in use. Also the surface Finnish has an effect, highly polished
Works best as it heats more evenly, a brushed surface has peeks and troughs that under a torch
Get to different temperatures so the colours can bea bit more muted than a mirror polished piece.

Its quite magical watching the changes happening.

[raid2506]

I've done some with an oxy torch not on metal this thin though.

It is VERY hard to get right, unless like markm says you have a high temp oven.

BTW Anodising is a totally different method where you make the metal part of an electrical circuit (Anode), immerse the metal in chemicals and pass a current through it.

[dnglos]

stu1873 Just came across this video on youtube.

[stu1873]

I now have my Nemesis clone in hand but as i like it so much i am not wanting to ruin it by trying to heat treat it.

As i have plenty of equipment at work to try this i have ordered another couple of the clones to give it a try but as slowtech and HK post seem to take ages i will be lucky to have them before christmas.

[paulymeatballs]

Decided to demote this set-up for work and wanted to give it a suitably industrial look.