I have used some cold blue on 5160 and got OK results. Am I correct in thinking a steel with less chromium is going to blue better? Like a 1080? Until I get into damascus I want to do blued guards and ferrules. I see Aldo sells some 1080 square stock that might be good for guards to be blued. Thoughts?
Can someone give me pointers on starting hot blueing? I have seen a video where Kyle Royer was doing it with blueing salts in a steel tube he had on a propane burner. Can it be this simple?
You might check with Brownells for some tutorials on hot bluing. Educate yourself before trying it. Some things like this are dangerous if precautions are not taken. Yes, some of these knife making procedures are simple, but can be very dangerous if a step ot two get mixed up.
I have found that RR spikes have clean steel and make nice guard material. It's also square and is large enough to work with.
Your initial investment for salts, iron bluing tanks, water displacing oil, cleaners, thermometer, etc. will put you about $400.00.
Then there's the process of learning to have steel so flawless and clean that you'd let someone perform brain surgery on your Mother with it.
But, then you can do stuff like:
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c247/kbaknife/Knives%2010/KHE-1.jpg)