Stainless Bolts

I have a quiry about how to make stainless
bolts look black or darker in colour without painting or powder coating
It's been suggested that i dip them into boiling oil. The bolts are being
used for fitting bits and pieces to my bike eg guards, brackets, not
engine mounts or were high tencil is needed
any thoughts
cheers
James

stainless can be anodized, but it's not very durable. But what's wrong with showing off your stainless fasteners?

If you heat s'stl, like with a blow torch, it will turn dark blue... kinda like your (well, my) exhaust pipes at the engine.
But heating it may affect the bolt's strength, so, now that I think about it, that's probably a real bad idea.
Never mind.
Edit:
Some s'stls are annealed by heat, but some are not. If your bolts are 18-8, a common 300 series material for bolts, then you can cook them and they won't loose strength. You could try flaming just the head of a bolt, since that's all that you see. That way, you won't take a chance on melting the threads or warping the bolt.

Post edited by: ltdrider, at: 2007/08/15 19:24

Most of the stainless I deal with in construction is needed for it's corrosion resistance. It's strength is actually lower than many carbon steels. Be very careful to use antiseize compound on any stainless bolts you use. Not sure about stainless into aluminum but stainless into carbon steel or stainless into stainless needs lubrication or it will gall tighter than you want to know about.

kzcsi

like he said,most stainless steel bolts are somewhere between a grade2 and a grade 5.

pstrbrc wrote:

But what's wrong with showing off your stainless fasteners?

I have heaps of chrome, polished aloy etc but these bolts are on several black parts and i just wanted to match rather then highlite the bolt
cheers

You might try using chemical bluing like they use for guns. I would think you could pick up a bottle for not a lot of money.

just heat em up with a propane torch till you get the color you want,it doesnt take that much heat.