Brown iron patina

[JHZR2]

I just picked up a nice Littlestown vice that I found on Craigslist. It is in great shape, nice original paint, good jaws. Paid $20 and I'm happy.

Some of the surfaces are exposed metal. They have a nice brown patina.

I have a much larger vice from my grandfather, that was never painted. It is older, and is very dark brown.

Obviously it is some sort of oxidation, but it's not a blooming/pitting rust. It's just a nice dark brown tone.

Does anyone know how they managed to get this back in the day... I'd assume it was commonplace to oil your metal stuff back then like it is now. I rubbed some ballistol over the item and it looks great. I don't care to remove the existing g color, nor do I need to recolor it. I'm just interested in if the color comes about due to finger oils, actually oiling it over time to prevent rust, etc. any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Shannow]

Try...
https://bushcraftusa.com/forum/threads/rust-bluing-a-tutorial.16456/

I've been experimenting with "ageing" stuff, and I'm NOT advocating this for your application, and will post some pics when photobucket is back up.

Salt and copper sulfate, rubbed into a bare degreased steel surface with steel wool will flash plate some copper onto it (steampunk anyone ??). If you do it on galvanised steel, you can get all sorts of interesting stuff happen, copper, brown rust, and occasionally you make brass in some locations.

 

[Shannow]

 

[jcwit]

Same as Browning a muzzleloader! Rust, then card/wipe, then rust then card/wipe, till you get what you want. Last muzzleloader I did I did the process 8 or 10 times.

 

[JHZR2]

Im not looking to do so, especially synthetically (no need to). Im more curious if/what they did back when (if is a valid question, perhaps they were shiny, allowed to rust, etc). They may well have used the same techniques. Im generally curious if they did... or if the dark color was achieved some other way.

Im assuming the vice is just cast iron, roughly machined in some places to not be as rough. For all I know, they seasoned them at the factory like cast iron pots...




Im generally talking the jaws, the flat spot in the anvil, and the main handle. I know there's a bit of surface rist on the handle to turn the vice.

Ive put a bit of ballistol on fwiw. Threads were very dry.

 

[The motor guy]

I think this one was cast iron, no paint, but does have that rougher texter that they do somehow which seems to prevent corrosion. Same thing with aluminum. I forgot the term.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I just picked up a nice Littlestown vice that I found on Craigslist. It is in great shape, nice original paint, good jaws. Paid $20 and I'm happy.

Some of the surfaces are exposed metal. They have a nice brown patina.

I have a much larger vice from my grandfather, that was never painted. It is older, and is very dark brown.

Obviously it is some sort of oxidation, but it's not a blooming/pitting rust. It's just a nice dark brown tone.

Does anyone know how they managed to get this back in the day... I'd assume it was commonplace to oil your metal stuff back then like it is now. I rubbed some ballistol over the item and it looks great. I don't care to remove the existing g color, nor do I need to recolor it. I'm just interested in if the color comes about due to finger oils, actually oiling it over time to prevent rust, etc. any ideas?

Thanks!


Probably oil over rust over oil over rust over oil (repeat for decades...) Odds are, if you let that old vice actually get WET, you'd see spots of the brighter, fresh iron oxide (don't do that!).

One quick way to get a dark "distressed" finish that won't easily break through to start oxidizing is to use naval jelly (dilute phosphoric acid.) It converts iron oxide (orange/brown) to iron phosphate (black, inert) which stays there as a protective layer over the bare iron. Decades ago, I found a nice pair of old wire-cutters in some of my granddad's tools, but they were very badly rusted. Plopped them in naval jelly overnight, rinsed it off the next day- and they've been kicking around my tool boxes ever since and look exactly the same as the day I rinsed the naval jelly off- patches of grey iron, mottled with black iron phosphate. They work great, too!

 

[JHZR2]

I wonder if the exposed metal was initially sold with a (shellac?) coating? Id think there would be some signs.

Wonder if these were sold coated in the oil?