How to stain ( brown/black silver solder)

[Old Ford2]

Hi,
Does anyone have any tips on browning or blackening silver solder.
Any help would be appreciated.
Fred

[FALout]

I've been lucky about being able to clean up the area after soldering.  But, I have an idea.  I used to do a lot of stained glass work, there's a liquid solution that you can buy that is used to turn solder black, not very expensive.  Order on line or find a stained glass supplier near you.
It might depend on content of silver in the solder whether it will change color, then you would have to find something that colors silver which I can't remember offhand right now.

[M. E. Pering]

Fred... Traditionally, a chemical called Liver of Sulfur was used, but I use a different method.

Hard boil an egg, and when cool peel it and place hard yolk in a plastic bag with your silver part.  Mash the yolk though the bag to cover the surface of your part, and set it aside until you see results.  This usually takes 30 minutes to an hour, and maybe a little longer depending on the darkness you are trying to achieve.

Matt

[P.W.Berkuta]

Fred... Traditionally, a chemical called Liver of Sulfur was used, but I use a different method.

Hard boil an egg, and when cool peel it and place hard yolk in a plastic bag with your silver part.  Mash the yolk though the bag to cover the surface of your part, and set it aside until you see results.  This usually takes 30 minutes to an hour, and maybe a little longer depending on the darkness you are trying to achieve.

Matt

Interesting --- I may give this a try on a test piece just to see the results. We ARE talking of SILVER solder here not LEAD solder - correct?

[webradbury]

Fred... Traditionally, a chemical called Liver of Sulfur was used, but I use a different method.

Hard boil an egg, and when cool peel it and place hard yolk in a plastic bag with your silver part.  Mash the yolk though the bag to cover the surface of your part, and set it aside until you see results.  This usually takes 30 minutes to an hour, and maybe a little longer depending on the darkness you are trying to achieve.

Matt

Lol! I can't help but wonder how someone figured this out! I'm going to try it myself, though. Does it turn black or give it an aged look?

[M. E. Pering]

Webradbury... It is a slower process... But the longer you let the reaction proceed, the darker the finish.  Personally, though I have used this method a couple of times, it isn't my favorite, and I have never produced an extremely dark finish with it.  My favorite method is a bit more exciting.  But it requires the parts NOT be on the gun.  What I do is I bury them in a bit of black powder, poured out on a cinder block, and light it.  It doesn't take much powder, only a little to mostly enclose the surface I want patina on.  Once the combustion is complete, I immediately dowse in cold water.  This turns the silver very, very dark brown to almost black immediately.  Use this method at your own risk, as I will not be responsible for damages you incur.  Never do this indoors.   

Again, in both methods, I believe it is the sulfur which is the main catalyst for the rapid oxidation, which is why Liver of Sulfur has been used traditionally.

Matt

[Old Ford2]

Hi,
Thank you very much for the suggestions.
Fred

[Hungry Horse]

 The ability of silver solder to be darkened depends on the type of silver solder. Jewelers grade soft silver solder will tarnish much like sterling silver, but the harder grades of silver solder don't have enough silver in them to behave like silver. Some industrial silver solders have very little silver in them, and don't tarnish at all.

   Hungry Horse

[mark esterly]

have used safty-silv 45% silver brazing alloy on brass and it tarnishes dark along with the brass just shooting and cleaning the rifle. 

[Keithbatt]

Brownells: solder black.

They sell different products for different solders. I use the type specified for the brownells hiforce solder and it works just fine.

Keith