Like Jeremy said, it is a very tough finish, and not hard to do, just takes time.
No heat needed with this!
Laurel Mountain Forge - Barrel Brown and Degreaser...do a search and you will find it in muzzleloading supply catalogs and maybe Midway USA. Comes with directions, a little bottle will do a bunch of knives.
works best with a sandblasted blade or scotchbrite finish, polished is not good for this. This is actually a process of rusting your blade, with a turbocharger.
Apply solution with a patch, give it time (several hours). works faster with humid climates. After several hours, take a rough cloth or course steel wool, and lighly buff off the rust. Do not try to get it back to original condition.
Repeat the process.
(Warning, the first time you do this, it will SCARE you. It is butt ugly for the first several coats and you will think you have ruined a good blade).
After repeating this process 6-8 times, the finish should be looking pretty good, the more you do it the more even it will get.
You are done when you get a fairly even brown finish.
Finally, I soak in hot baking soda/water for a half hour or so to stop the rusting. Dry, lightly scour with mild scotch brite or steel wool a final time.
Traditionally, boiled linseed oil is wiped on and also happens to be a nice finish for the wood.
One more thing, if you are making a full tang knife, have your handle finished before doing this, as you will not want to sand away the browned finish.
You can probably see better photos of this process if you just do a search, as well as final finish photos.
Dan
Topic: Browned steel (Read 1541 times)
