Caswell Stainless Steel blackener on carbon steel head?

[D.reamer]

Can anyone tell me if the SS blackener will work on a carbon steel head? So the deal is I have a Newport 2 but I’m pretty sure it is a nockoff so I really don’t think it’s a SS head or a very low quality SS if it is. I just don’t want to buy two products if the SS blackener will work for both

[cfunk11]

I would suggest the Birchwood Casey gun blueing set. I had an old Palambi that I cleaned up an blued and I think it looks good. I did it last fall and I don't have that many rounds on it and I am interested to see how it holds up this spring.

[dbdors]

Can anyone tell me if the SS blackener will work on a carbon steel head? So the deal is I have a Newport 2 but I’m pretty sure it is a nockoff so I really don’t think it’s a SS head or a very low quality SS if it is. I just don’t want to buy two products if the SS blackener will work for both

 

No, SS and carbon steel are completely different alloys. SS has chromium, (and other alloying materials) which gives its silver color. Not sure what low quality SS is, but it’s not carbon steel.

[D.reamer]

Well I tried the berchwood bluing kit today and it absolutely did nothing to it so although a magnet sticks to it pretty good it must be stainless so I ordered me a SS darkener kit today so hopefully it works

[Handy_Golfer73]

I have an old Ping Pal 4 putter that I thought would be fun to refinish and make it black. I did some research online and bought the Caswell SS Blackener. I followed the directions that I had obtained from watching videos, but there were a couple of unexpected differences. First, I sanded the entire putter surface to remove all of the dings and scratches. I then polished it to a mirror finish because I read somewhere that the blackener responded best to a polished surface. It looked pretty sharp, but I did not want a shiny putter. Here is the first unexpected difference. I have seen a couple of guys that recommended dipping the SS putter in muriatic acid for a few minutes to etch the surface before cleaning in distilled water and blackening. I dipped my putter in muriatic acid for a few minutes and it did nothing to the putter, so I just left it in the acid to see what would happen. After about 6 or 7 hours it did finally etch the surface. Again, it looked really sharp with a nice even very light etching on the surface, but I really wanted the putter head to be black. Here is the second unexpected difference. I dipped the putter head in the blackener for about 4-5 minutes and took it out to rinse. It did blacken most of the putter, but it was a very blotchy uneven coloring. I repeated that process several times, but I never got an even finish. So, I left it in the blackener for 20 minutes or so hoping it would get better. To my dismay, it badly pitted the putter. Like to the point that I might lose the stamped lettering on the putter if I were to start over and sand out all of the pitting.

 

So, I am just trying to figure out where I went wrong. Is the putter not really stainless steel. Does anyone have any insight or suggestions?