Bluing Zinc Plated Chainmail

[dienekes480]

I have commercially available chain mail that has a zinc plating, I would like to give it a darker, more realistic finish. Does anyone know if one can blue zinc plated steel? Is there some other way to achieve the desired results that doesn't involve grease? Thanks.

[Caius Fabius]

you can soak it in a 'pickle' solution, then heat it almost red hot and quench it in motor oil, and then put it in a barrel of oiled sand and roll the barrel around to polish off any 'scale', which will darken it and get the zinc off.

One of our guys had really nice results with that.

(remove any bronze, brass or leather first!)

[M. Demetrius]

Transmission fluid instead of motor oil will bring out more bluish tints. I generally use that, but used motor oil and new motor oil give different shades of dark grey.

I heated my maille with a propane torch (an oven would have been easier) and sprayed it with WD-40, and got a nice light grey, but not zinkish color. It was hot enough to smoke at once when the spray hit, but not hot enough to ignite the spray.

In general, that process is very close to a rust-proofing coating.

Grocery store vinegar works fine for taking off the zinc. Available in gallons. Do that outdoors, because the zinc oxides are not your lungs' friend. You should be able to tell when it's done all it will, when the bubbles stop coming off the rings.

[Matthew Amt]

Do NOT attempt to burn off the zinc, or try any sort of heat treatment to the galvanized mail! Zinc fumes can be lethal! And I don't think the metal can be blued or darkened with the galvanizing still on it.

As the others have said, remove the leather and any fittings, and soak the mail overnight in vinegar. That should take off the zinc. Folks have also used battery acid, which works much more quickly. I don't think that will give off much in the way of toxic fumes, but it does give off hydrogen gas! Outdoors project, yup. Once the zinc is gone and the mail carefully rinsed and dried, then you can try heating and oiling to darken it.

However, a plain bright steel finish is the most likely historical appearance. Mail chafes against itself constantly with use, and that will tend to rub off any dark finish that remains from the metalworking process. Routine cleaning of the mail will brighten it, too. I wouldn't bother with trying to blacken it.

Valete,

Matthew

[scott]

PS. Don't forget to dispose of that used battery acid in an environmentally friendly manner..........

Scott :wink:

[M. Demetrius]

PS. Don't forget to dispose of that used battery acid in an environmentally friendly manner

You mean like pouring it on an ant mound?
(Just kidding, don't kill me!)
But it won't be very acidic after it's released the hydrogen, and has changed to (most likely) zinc chloride, if it's HCl, or zinc sulfate if it's H[size=75:3cam6mno]2[/size]SO[size=75:3cam6mno]4[/size].

[scott]

Ha ha - yes something like that!

Joking apart we're having major problems with the environment agency at present due to this very thing. (battery acid contaminated soil - not ants!!)

Scott.