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Burning stainless to give it a 'yellow' effect

November 20, 2011

Hi there. I'm a wood guy building a custom door who needs to change the colour of the nickel-plated hardware associated (knobs, lock, etc.) After some investigation into feasibility and price, cooking the metal with a blow lamp seems the best option, but I have only one go at this. Anyone try this before or know about temperature range vs. colour? I'm looking for anything between a straw yellow to gold-ish and a little darker won't hurt. I also don't know if such a temperature treatment would peel the plating off... or if that's even possible.



Cheers.

Candelero Armstrong
designer / carpenter - Jocotenango, Sacatepequez, Guatemala

Oil your object very, very sparingly with linseed oil (or sunflower, peanut, olive or any other edible oil, or you can use 5-20% shellac solution) and then heat it slowly to 200-400 °C (use hot air gun). Hope it helps and good luck!

Goran Budija
- Cerovski vrh Croatia
November 23, 2011