Darkening Metal

Try doing a SEARCH for "blacken It" or "neo-lube". The subject has been discussed MANY times here.

Floquil Engine Black works pretty good. 

Lay the locomotive on its side, clip some leads to the center rollers and a ground somewhere, run it real slow and flow the paint on with a brush.

Rusty

Check through the Micro-Mark catalog. I believe they may have a product available to do this.

Yeah, I use only Neo-lube.  Its benign, easy to use, the metal still conducts electricity, and the surface, while darkened, still looks like metal.

Micro-Mark carries it, by the way.  maybe others, too.  Its expensive ($18 for 2 ounces) but one bottle goes a long way. 

What color of Metal will result from Neo-Lube?

I have a Williams Hudson that may receive this kind of treatment.

Would you just apply it and leave it with no further treatment to stop the reaction etc.

you could try a black patina from a stained glass supplier-Hobby Lobby- etc.

Frank

It is a very dark gray -- not quite charcoal, more of a burnished cast ironish look.

You just brush it on like paint.  

The driver rims on this locomotive are painted with Floquil Engine Black, the side rods are coated with Neo-Lube:

Rusty

here's a MTH 2-8-0 before Blackin-It:

and after:

I tried it on the tire rims, but being I didn't take the wheels off the engine and let them soak in it for a while it took longer than I wanted to wait.  I ended up painting the rims weathered black (sorry, no photo yet but it's the color of the cab and boiler).

I find that Blacken-it works on almost nothing. The only place it worked was post war 2025 drivers in the centers and 2321 TM trucks. No way will it blackin those tires. Its nearly useless.

Rob

hello guys and gals............

What about the bottle of gun metal blue from the gun shop ? Did anyone ever tried that ?

the woman who loves the S.F.#5021

Tiffany

Neo-Lube here....the best

Do you want it "blued" or blackened?

Same advice as we gave last time.

Previous gun blue thread

As HW said, you want blackening. We're only talking about a thin rim to be darkened. Simple solutions such as paint or Neolube are best.

Jim

hello guys and gals.........

I don't know why the gun shops called it "blue" as i seen guns with black finishing so i am little confused.  Of course many of us would rather have blacken. 

the woman who loves the S.F.#5021

Tiffany

It works on brass soaked in it for several days.  I used to scratch build models of sailing warships and I would turn the cannon barrels out of brass stock and then blacken them since most real cannon in the Napoleonic period were cast iron.  But it took about four days and it would not work on other metals as well - at least for me. 

Still, for locos, neolube is all I use on drivers and any moving parts and such.  Otherwise, flat black paint. 

I am not specifically  familiar with Blacken-It but I do know that a lot of "blackening" products work on brass or aluminum, but NOT nickel or chrome. Driver rims on 0 gauge engines are typically plated, which is why a coating such as Neolube or paint will work, while a chemical blackening solution will not. Both gun bluing and chemical blackening products work by making a chemical change to the surface of the piece. The piece must be extremely clean and it helps a lot if the piece is heated. Nickel and chrome are pretty much impervious to any kind of chemical bluing or blackening solution - that's one reason they are used in the first place, they resist corrosion and the solutions are basically a form of corrosion. You need to pick the right product for the surface to be darkened - bluing for steel or iron, blackeners for brass or aluminum, paint or Neolube for nickel or chrome. Of course, paint or Neolube will work on anything as long as it's clean when you apply it. 

hello Southwest Hiawatha...........

That's very interesting, in this case i better leave the driver rims alone as i think they are nickle plated.   Back in 1993 i had a scale lionel #6-18010 steam turbine with the nickle plated tires and i tried the "blacken-it" stuff and it later had corrosion damage on it.   I cleaned the tires well per instructions but turned out poor and damaged so i never used it again.  Painting of on the sides of the tires didn't stick well either as they were easy to rub off so i gave up. 

the woman who loves the S.F.#5021

Tiffany

Painting them will work fine with the proper prep,  and just be sure not to pick up your engines by the drivers.

My experience is that paint wears off of drivers, etc. - although its easy enought to re-apply.  

I neolubed my lively little Lionel 0-4-0 Shifter this morning.  Here is the result. 

I also weathered it with powders after this step - I posted pics of that on the thread now active about weathering locomotives.

"Blueing" is blackening.

Works fine on ferrous metals; I've been using it for years.  I don't blacken side rods or wheel rims, so I couldn't say how well that works.