Help... (darkening brass tubes)

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Another satisfied customer here.

I've been using the same bottle of brass ager for almost 2 years now. I pour some liquid in a cup, dump the brass in, wait a few minutes, remove brass, let liquid settle for a moment then pour liquid back into bottle minus a few drops which has debris.
 
I got a bottle of gun blueing. I dumped it into a Kallenshaan (sp) laser blank container and that is what it lives in now. Whenever i need to darken tubes, I just plug em with some spud, and stick em in the blueing. A little shakey shakey and they are ready to be removed. I let em dry for a few hours before i use them. Local, Cheap, fast, and dependable. It is full of floaties but they don't bother the process.


Otherwise, various colors and variety of paint if i am in some kinda of hurry to glue, or want a different effect. Right now, my favorite is some spray paint i get from a local mom and pop home improvement shop for $1 a can!
 
Black Rustoleum spray paint is what I use for darkening the tubes. Then I use various colors dependent on what color PR blank I make. I use Rustoleum because in my experience it holds up better to the CA I use.
 
I've never chemically blackened my tubes, mainly because early on someone turned me onto painting the inside of the drilled blank, which looks much better because you don't see the glue or the tube. You can use Testors enamel model paint and paint it in the tube with a q-tip. Works great, is easy, and you can do a whole variety of colors to get different effects on your blanks.

But if you must have black tubes, Rustoleum black Appliance Epoxy works great. It's the same type of paint they use on the 'precolored' tubes you get from Woodcraft. It just takes a little while to dry (24 hours, maybe more if your shop's really cold) so you have to plan ahead for it.
 
another vote for gun blueing liquid. the reasons I use it are that it is readily available locally, cheap, and does not increase the diameter of the tubes.
 
Darkening the tubes is fine for some transluscent blanks but please, if you do any clear blanks such as my "Original Cactus Blank"™, be sure to paint the inside of the blank. If not, once the pen is turned, the curvature will make a magnifying effect and any air pockets in your glue will stick out like a diamond in a goat's butt! I don't think you want your pens to look like that!! :)
 
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