Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Now for a status update

on three things:
First, the foot is improving.  Swelling's down, but I still don't want to walk much, or stand on it much, and the fever feels about gone(I think my thermometer's screwed, so can't tell for sure).  Happily, it appears the antibiotics aren't screwing with me.

The report on the Magholder will take longer, because haven't been out much to wear it. 

Quite a while back I tried coating a knife with header paint to see how it'd hold up; I set it in the dining area, and it got covered up, so hasn't been used much(almost at all).  It's now sitting by the cutting board for actual use.

Confession time: it looked so nice I took a pistol that had a worn finish and refinished it with the same paint.  Figured I'd let it cure, bake it, then shoot  and carry it to see how it holds up.  Shortly after that, the current ammo/components crisis started, so it hasn't been fired as much as had planned.  Or carried as much(different story).  So today I'm going to start carrying it as much as I can, at least around the house, and start seeing how this finish holds up.

2 comments:

Sigivald said...

I take it the curing temperature won't affect the steel in the gun, either making it too soft or too hard?

Because that'd be my worry... but a a blacksmith I imagine you know more about that than I do.

(I do know I've put metal in the oven to temper it after softening it for work with a torch, when making half-assed knives out of an old sawblade.

I suppose hardening your gun a little is unlikely to cause a problem... assuming the header paint needs to break 300-some degrees to cure.)

Firehand said...

I haven't done any serious reading in a while, but for most carbon steels that've been hardened, you have to hit 400f or above- usually above- before you'd start affecting the hardness. So up to 400F should be fine.

I did do a bunch of research first, and of all the people who'd tried this stuff, none had any problems indicating any change in hardness on the parts baked.