Introduction to Oil Blackening, Medieval Armor Techniques #3
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ต.ค. 2024
- Oil blackening techniques are likely myriad, but these are two techniques I use regularly enough and one that I don't practice nearly as much as I ought to.
After separate conversations with two curators of armour in the Royal Armouries and Wallace Collection it appears that blackened armour may have been more prevalent than, I previously thought; so I started to experiment with two different blackening techniques ... oh ... and the other one - I know of at least two other techniques practised by different armourers that I will try and make another video about in the future.
I am still learning how to oil blacken armour consistently, my success rate is about 8/10 times at the moment; but after sharing some pictures on instagram I was asked about how I had achieved the finish, so I made the video to help with that.
I hope it is enjoyable, useful and sparks some interest. As ever I appreciate feedback, particularly about the length of these longer videos, is it too much of me rambling on and not enough just showing the work?
"Quick recorded video" that is a 22 minutes mini documentary and it is great, thank you so much !
keep them coming :D is there any way we can support you (i would buy some armour but i'm afraid you're too expensive for my poor little student's wallet) ?
Thanks for the feedback, my 8 year old groans at my ability to sit through hours of documentaries, so 22 minutes seems quite short :)
Hah, thanks, you might be surprised. :)
Just feedback, sharing and comments are great thanks ... and a cup of coffee or beer should we ever meet :)
i'll keep feedback coming then ! also, little tip, you should research how to gain visibility on youtube (like by putting tags on you videos, having associated words such as armour, helm, gauntlet, etc. in the description might help). For example i searched on youtube: "greenleaf armoury" and you werent even in the first two pages !
Cheers!
I guess im asking randomly but does anyone know a way to get back into an Instagram account?
I was stupid lost my account password. I would love any tips you can offer me!
The towel method is very similar to how people season cast iron and carbon steel pans, the idea is you want many thin coat of oil and have it pass its smoke point and polymerise, you can season a pan on the stove top(similar to how you blowtorch it), but popping it in the oven works way better in terms of uniformity of the layer. The idea should be the same for armour, but I’m not sure if it will ruin the heat treatment, normal for pan seasoning it’s 230c for 30 min each layer.
I just found your channel and I'm loving it! Great instructional video's, very informative, well made, clear, simply top notch stuff.
So I've decided to subscribe, and will be looking forward to more of your work.
Thomas, thanks for the compliments, I should get something else up next week. I'm aiming for one a week ... so long as real life doesn't get in the way too much :)
Enjoying your videos!
In blacksmithing, I've found I can get a consistent black finish in an oven. The temperature control is easy, and I can trade off a lower temperature against a longer time. When doing a knife, for example, I can give it an 8-hour bake (reapplying oil every hour or so for the first four hours) at 200 F / 95 C, and not worry about the knife temper being affected. If I use a cooking oil, it's even safe to use the cooking oven.
sweet, I've always wanted to make some nice knives, rather than the knife shaped objects I can make. I wonder if they would have baked stuff off in ovens back in the day, there would have been plenty of them about with bakers, pottery kilns, brick makers etc ...
@@GreenleafWorkshop Bet it would make the subsequent bread taste funny.
next time you do linseed oil, heat it from the back of the piece. you'll get jet black in 3-4 coats with that method. i just did a piece, and i even burnt it, but i just added more and more layers and for the most part, its fairly uniform in texture. before i messed it up it was beautiful, completely BLACK (BLACK AS NIGHT) and smooth. now its got a slight bit of character.
Agreed, I've used that technique on some greaves, wonderful dark black.
I wish I had found this sooner I oil blackened an entire set of gauntlets with trial, error and a pot of vegetable oil. As I was using the oil blackening quench to harden my steel I had to temper it in the oven afterwards which got it BLACK, with a line where the excess oil blackened. Due to having only a blowtorch and a gas hob I was forced to only do one coat, so I cleaned my pieces up and blacked them which worked very well. Now I just have 2 knuckle-plates and two thumb-plates to finish the gauntlet.
Edit: I think using an oven at 260 °C and residual oil did the same as your method.
HI, glad it was useful. There's so many ways to do oil treating, since the video I've found a few more and mean to do a part II, but haven't found the time yet.
Awesome. I might try option 3. Why not use vegetable oil for the quench? No awful smell and maybe less cancer.
Very true, I used to do a fair amount of blacksmithing and blackened work was all the rage at the time, being near a mechanics I got hold of gallons of the oil and am still making my way through it, I think though that my personal preference is for linseed, but I must confess to not having spent a heap of time learning about what oils they had other than olive oil, I have meant to see when pine tree oil became a thing.
You may have inspired me to take a look :)
side note. I have been tempted to go around to chip shops for oil but than there could be weird stuff in the oil and the smell will make me hungry.
The armour would smell glorious though.
I have and it worked fine.
Bloody Beautiful work there. Good job!
interesting color, I will try this out myself
You're awesome, I love this kind of stuff.
no, you're awesome ;)
Thanks mate.
Awesome video, so helpful! I've been considering reblackening a helmet of mine, the issue is only certain sections have lost the finish. Would spot rubbing with very light coats to the exposed sections be a possibility in your opinion?
I've had very limited success in repatching blackened finishes, so I tend to go for broke and simply redo it. But, in fairness my lack of success may be due to exactly that reason and I haven't gained the experience.
If you're set to having to redo it, try repatching it and if it doesn't work at east your mentally and logistically set to redo it? Probably not the advice you're after but it's what I would try.
What do you mean by "boiled linseed"? Do you buy it preboiled, or is this some kind of treatment you do to it? If you boil it, how long, how hot?
Hi there, it's something that you can order online. www.amazon.co.uk/Bartoline-Boiled-Linseed-Oil-2ltr/dp/B00IG94E4U/ref=asc_df_B00IG94E4U/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309954504937&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2569148616069695046&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006715&hvtargid=pla-751224814447&psc=1
I want to make a suit of black armor, and i'm struggling to find something that will work. Paints just scrape off too easily and i'v seen other people do chemical baths (Which is quite involved are really dangerous), and i'v also seen people use black metal polishes.
Is burning on the oil resistant to being rubbed of/abrasion? And would vegetable oil or normal cooking oil work?
The look i'm going for is the deep dark black with brass accents.
Great channel! Keep it on :)
thanks, will try to :)
Very helpful Thanks
Pleasure. I keep meaning to revisit this as I've kearnt a few more things. But in the meantime I'm glad it helped.
Is this likely to affect the hardness of the piece?
If the mild steel has been work hardened (or if the material is carbon steel and has been hardened * tempered), will the repeated heating soften the metal to any notable degree?
work hardening is always removed when heated, functions about the same as regular hardening. You shouldn't need to heat up much past 300 degrees - you're really just trying to get the oil close to flashing, but an incomplete combustion (smoke) which will "bake" itself to the surface.
I don't understand one thing, why do you doing all this working, it is good for steel/iron, or it is like only for good looking? Thank you for aswer
Hi. The oil blackening does a couple of things.
1. Helps water proof it against rain/sweat and other corrosive elements.
2. Is quicker than polishing it to a shine.
3. Would likely have been cheaper, in the past, than cleaning it back.
Hope this helps :)
+Greenleaf Workshop thank you 😉
why didnt i find this video earlier...
How long do you think it would take me to make full harness? This will be my first time.
took me (first time /w a time-consuming design) more than two and a half weeks to complete a set of gauntlets with templates.
With the boiled linseed quench is that a salet that your using?
It's an early attempt of mine at a helmet, that went a bit wrong so I use it as a container now :)
Well, seems like its time to buy oil and an anvil
Talk less, show more.
My question is, do different materials in maintaining the armor give different finishes ? Would beeswax be shinier than shoe polish for example ?
The quick answer is sort of yes and no :)
Some polishing can even out steel finishes. Most metal polishes are abrasive so they will, over time, create an even look to armour repeatedly cleaned with it.
Beeswax and most waxes can initially dull off polished armour giving them what I call a milky look. But if you buff the wax finishes you end up with a deep lustre that metal polishes dont give. But buffing in that lustre can reduce the wax's natural waterproofing as you reduce the wax.
I prefer wax. But just be ready for some elbow work. I'll try and do a video on it.
Avoid spray lacquers. They look great but chip really easily create a whole mess of problems on any armour you want to move in.