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Environmentally friendly black finish for steel

Hi,
I am an architect who is not familiar with metal finishing. We have a line of sustainable home organization products that are currently made in stainless. We want to give a less expensive option to customers and are looking for 16 ga. steel, but with a black, rubbed finish similar to 'gun blue', but a deeper black and something that could be machine applied vs. hand finished.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,

Laura Joines
Architect - San Luis Obispo, California
February 10, 2008

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I'll assume that by 'environmentally friendly' you simply mean free of cadmium, mercury, lead, and hexavalent chromium, Laura. If ithe term means more than that to you, you'd need to spend some time telling us exactly what you mean. Gun blue is for enthusiasts who relish oiling their gun at every opportunity; it's not a practical finish for most things as it will rust almost immediately.

Black zinc plating, black nickel plating, or black chrome plating all might be good choices. If you want to make them out of aluminum instead of steel, black anodizing may be good. This is for interior use I assume?

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
February 12, 2008

Just type powder coating into Google - you will soon learn what designers and architects are specifying and how it is applied etc.

Terry Hickling
Birmingham, United Kingdom
February 14, 2008