I should start off and state that I have never done this before. I also wanted to try for the "roll your own" experience and not have to mail order expensive solutions. Hence the experiment. LOL.
So I decided to try Parkerizing. I wanted to try both Zinc and Manganese finishes. There is a fair bit of stuff on the web but it is all a little scattered and not very specific. So I thought I would post this to help out if I can. First off: The procedure for the Zinc finish and the Manganese finish were exactly the same.
Let's start with the ingredients for the solutions:
You will need Phosphoric Acid. I bought mine at a Hydroponics store and they call it PH down. It cost $12. They sell two types - one is citric acid based and one is phosphoric acid based. You do NOT want the citric acid type! Mine looked like this:
And it was concentrated - which I'm guessing makes it 85% strength.
And make sure it is Phosphoric acid.
You will also need two different chemicals for the phosphoric acid to work with. One for the Zinc finish and one for the Manganese finish. I got mine at a pottery supply store. I think about 5$ for each 500g.
Here's what you need for the zinc finish ZINC OXIDE. Zinc gives a very dark grey or almost black finish:
And here is what I used for the Manganese finish. MANGANESE DIOXIDE (they didn't sell just oxide).
(edit:I have also heard of Manganese Carbonate being used with good results.)
Manganese gives a medium to dark grey finish:
Here's some beakers and items I used to mix up the solutions:
I made 4 litres of each type of solution. It is written on other threads that distilled or Reverse Osmosis water is very important to success. Fortunately I have a Reverse Osmosis filter system installed.
:
The formula I used for both the Zinc and Manganese solutions was:
4 litres R.O. water (picture above)
400 millilitres of concentrated Phosphoric Acid: (edited from 200 to 400 ml)
about 5 (edited from 3) ounces (by weight) of either the Zinc Oxide or the Manganese DIoxide:
I made two different batches (one Zinc solution and one Manganese solution) by adding the WATER THEN the ACID and then the OXIDES into a plastic jug. I understand it is important safety wise to add the acid TO the water. Here is how I got the oxides into the jug (wife's hands - not mine):
I ended up with these two 4 litre mixtures:
~ really 5 oz. of zinc oxide and 400 ml of Acid (edited from 200 ml)
Should be 400 ml acid
Since I was doing a small test I used two pieces of Cold Rolled steel. I did not machine of polish or finish them. I wanted to see what results just sandblasting them would give:
They look different due to photography, but they were cut, side by side, off the same piece of stock.
I had read how important it was to throughly degrease/oil the pieces. I used Lacquer thiner I bought at Home Depot.
I soaked the pieces of metal and used paper towels to wipe them down. You will see in this next photograph that I used mechanics wire (bailing wire) to hang the pieces while parkerizing them. I will NOT do that next time. It causes problems. I will use aluminum or stainless steel wire.
I then sandblasted them using 80 grit Aluminum Oxide sand. This gives a very nice finish.
You can see in the picture above that by this point in the process and all the way to the end) I have started to wear Nitrile Gloves. They are durable enough to sand blast with and you will not transfer oil from your hands onto the steel. This is very important.
I soaked and wiped the pieces after sand-blasting with Lacquer thinner again.
While I was cleaning and sandblasting, I had already heated my solution to 180 degrees F on the stove. I used a boiling water bath, but next time I will just use a stainless steel pot.
I also had a pot of Reverse Osmosis water heated to 180 degrees as well on the stove beside my hot parkerizing solution. This hot water was used to heat the steel to 180 before I put it in the parkerizing solution. This ensures the metal is up to temperature.
OKAY! time for immersion into the parkerizing solution. I had read on other threads about the addition of a biscuit of steel wool. I did not do any addition of steel wool to my solutions.
(edit: I have received reports that the steel wool biscuit does improve the process)
Here it is at 10 minutes and still bubbling. My bubbles never did stop as I have read on other threads.
I had read about leaving for ten minutes. I don't believe this to be long enough. When I do this again I will leave for 20 or 30 minutes. My bubbling never stopped as reported on other threads.
After I removed the pieces I rinsed them in a stream of Reverse Osmosis water. THIS DOES NOT WORK.
This proved to be UNSATISFACTORY. I believe you would have to rinse for a very long time to stop the acid's activity. If I rubbed them while under the water the parkerization finish would all but rub off. I believe that the acid was still 'working" and causing the finish to be "soft". It should be noted that I repeated the whole procedure many times (oil contamination, solution not hot enough, etc.).
What I ended up doing, and THIS SEEMED TO WORK VERY WELL, was after removing the pieces from the hot solution I would dip them in a solution of Reverse Osmosis water with a goodly amount of BAKING SODA mixed in. This immediately stopped the acid's action and the finish was then "hard" and was not able to be rubbed off at all. I do not have a photo of this however.
I then sprayed down the pieces with WD40 to remove all water. After that I oiled with gun oil. The finish really is absorbent and I was surprised as to see how much oil was sucked up.
So this is how they turned out. The finish is really quite durable, with the zinc finish being darker and I think it is more durable than the manganese. Not sure on the durability between the two would always be that way. It may have to do with the short 10 minute duration.
Here they are:
You can see marks where I scratched them for durability and marks of unevenness from the mechanics wire.
All comments and suggestions are welcomed.
So I decided to try Parkerizing. I wanted to try both Zinc and Manganese finishes. There is a fair bit of stuff on the web but it is all a little scattered and not very specific. So I thought I would post this to help out if I can. First off: The procedure for the Zinc finish and the Manganese finish were exactly the same.
Let's start with the ingredients for the solutions:
You will need Phosphoric Acid. I bought mine at a Hydroponics store and they call it PH down. It cost $12. They sell two types - one is citric acid based and one is phosphoric acid based. You do NOT want the citric acid type! Mine looked like this:
And it was concentrated - which I'm guessing makes it 85% strength.
And make sure it is Phosphoric acid.
You will also need two different chemicals for the phosphoric acid to work with. One for the Zinc finish and one for the Manganese finish. I got mine at a pottery supply store. I think about 5$ for each 500g.
Here's what you need for the zinc finish ZINC OXIDE. Zinc gives a very dark grey or almost black finish:
And here is what I used for the Manganese finish. MANGANESE DIOXIDE (they didn't sell just oxide).
(edit:I have also heard of Manganese Carbonate being used with good results.)
Manganese gives a medium to dark grey finish:
Here's some beakers and items I used to mix up the solutions:
I made 4 litres of each type of solution. It is written on other threads that distilled or Reverse Osmosis water is very important to success. Fortunately I have a Reverse Osmosis filter system installed.
:
The formula I used for both the Zinc and Manganese solutions was:
4 litres R.O. water (picture above)
400 millilitres of concentrated Phosphoric Acid: (edited from 200 to 400 ml)
about 5 (edited from 3) ounces (by weight) of either the Zinc Oxide or the Manganese DIoxide:
I made two different batches (one Zinc solution and one Manganese solution) by adding the WATER THEN the ACID and then the OXIDES into a plastic jug. I understand it is important safety wise to add the acid TO the water. Here is how I got the oxides into the jug (wife's hands - not mine
):
I ended up with these two 4 litre mixtures:
~ really 5 oz. of zinc oxide and 400 ml of Acid (edited from 200 ml)
Should be 400 ml acid
Since I was doing a small test I used two pieces of Cold Rolled steel. I did not machine of polish or finish them. I wanted to see what results just sandblasting them would give:
They look different due to photography, but they were cut, side by side, off the same piece of stock.
I had read how important it was to throughly degrease/oil the pieces. I used Lacquer thiner I bought at Home Depot.
I soaked the pieces of metal and used paper towels to wipe them down. You will see in this next photograph that I used mechanics wire (bailing wire) to hang the pieces while parkerizing them. I will NOT do that next time. It causes problems. I will use aluminum or stainless steel wire.
I then sandblasted them using 80 grit Aluminum Oxide sand. This gives a very nice finish.
You can see in the picture above that by this point in the process and all the way to the end) I have started to wear Nitrile Gloves. They are durable enough to sand blast with and you will not transfer oil from your hands onto the steel. This is very important.
I soaked and wiped the pieces after sand-blasting with Lacquer thinner again.
While I was cleaning and sandblasting, I had already heated my solution to 180 degrees F on the stove. I used a boiling water bath, but next time I will just use a stainless steel pot.
I also had a pot of Reverse Osmosis water heated to 180 degrees as well on the stove beside my hot parkerizing solution. This hot water was used to heat the steel to 180 before I put it in the parkerizing solution. This ensures the metal is up to temperature.
OKAY! time for immersion into the parkerizing solution. I had read on other threads about the addition of a biscuit of steel wool. I did not do any addition of steel wool to my solutions.
(edit: I have received reports that the steel wool biscuit does improve the process)
Here it is at 10 minutes and still bubbling. My bubbles never did stop as I have read on other threads.
I had read about leaving for ten minutes. I don't believe this to be long enough. When I do this again I will leave for 20 or 30 minutes. My bubbling never stopped as reported on other threads.
After I removed the pieces I rinsed them in a stream of Reverse Osmosis water. THIS DOES NOT WORK.
This proved to be UNSATISFACTORY. I believe you would have to rinse for a very long time to stop the acid's activity. If I rubbed them while under the water the parkerization finish would all but rub off. I believe that the acid was still 'working" and causing the finish to be "soft". It should be noted that I repeated the whole procedure many times (oil contamination, solution not hot enough, etc.).
What I ended up doing, and THIS SEEMED TO WORK VERY WELL, was after removing the pieces from the hot solution I would dip them in a solution of Reverse Osmosis water with a goodly amount of BAKING SODA mixed in. This immediately stopped the acid's action and the finish was then "hard" and was not able to be rubbed off at all. I do not have a photo of this however.
I then sprayed down the pieces with WD40 to remove all water. After that I oiled with gun oil. The finish really is absorbent and I was surprised as to see how much oil was sucked up.
So this is how they turned out. The finish is really quite durable, with the zinc finish being darker and I think it is more durable than the manganese. Not sure on the durability between the two would always be that way. It may have to do with the short 10 minute duration.
Here they are:
You can see marks where I scratched them for durability and marks of unevenness from the mechanics wire.
All comments and suggestions are welcomed.
Last edited:
