Flame painting

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Hello: For all the metal artists who may cruise this way, I'm posting in hopes of getting some instruction. I've searched the archives on other metal art sites and haven't found quite what I'm looking for, so please forgive me if this has been repeated at some point in the past as I don't get to read everyday.I've finally arrived at the point in my artistry that I'm no longer happy with just painting my plasma cut-outs flat black. I'm looking to step into the world of color and try some experimentation with flame painting. I'm working with .088 hot roll sheet and after cutting out I knock the mill scale off with a flap disc down to bare, shiny steel. Using my brazing tip and working very slowly and patiently I can start to see the bare metal darken into maybe a light brown, and then blue then the blue will turn sort-of a grey-silver color if I overheat it. Buff it back out and go again, so far so good. My question is how do I produce the variety of colors I've seen on projects on the list. Golds, yellows, coppers, deep-rich blues and reds. I know some folks use copper sheet and some use stainless, but I'm using mild hot roll carbon steel at this point. Seems I remember seeing something about painting the metal with a borax solution before heating...? Is there a trick to treating the metal that helps bring out the variety of colors? I would truly appreciate any feedback you can give me...I'm really excited to learn this technique. Thank you !!!Ronnie LyonsMeridian, [email protected] LyonsMeridian, Idaho
Reply:i would reccomend experimenting. i know that if you use borax, it will give you a different color. i have tried it before (for a day, i got this "artist's craving", where i tried doing weird things and experimenting on different stuff. try taking a copper pipe and "coloring" the steel like you were trying to write with a crayon on the metal. this woudl put a thin layer of copper on the steel and may give you a weird coloration (possibly green?). also, try jsut spraying different things on it... anti-spatter, WD-40, Brake-Kleen... heck, you could even try Windex or a bit-o-Beer from that bottle sitting next to your table. the heat dissipation for the different substances will most likely give you a different coloration pattern. the best advise i can give is to jsut try new and different things on a scrap piece... worst case scenario, you loose a piece of scrap. you could even try writing with chalk on it before torching the piece. try dish soap, try pre-heating the piece on your grill before flaming it. you coudl even try heating it and throwing some ice onto it. the rapid cooling coudl give a new effect. in short, try anything and everything you can. it'd be interesing to see what all you can come up with. post some pictures when you get some things going. i'm interested in seeing what you can come up with. later,AndyP.S. try taking some pencil lead from a mechanical pencil, lay it down on the metal, take a 9-volt battery, and short-circuit the battery with the lead. it will glow read hot VERY fast. this concentrated heat source may give you a very crisp, clean heat mark. the thinnner the lead, the greater the resistance. the greater the resistance, the higher the heat. be careful though, the first time you heat a piece of graphite, it will catch fire/spark/crackle. this is the impurities and/or hand oil comming off. after this, the only real issue you may have is the lead exploding. to minimize the explosion possibility, get bigger lead. if you have a big enough battery, try running the current thru a piece of lead out of a wooden pencil. i've tried it before and barely got it to glow, but i've never tried it with a car battery. too scared.later,Andy
Reply:Thanks for the suggestions, never thought of some of these. I give this a whirl and post some shots.Ronnie LyonsMeridian, Idaho
Reply:You may find this website useful for asking questions about anything that deals  with metal art.  I frequent it often and they are a good group of artists.http://www.innovationaliron.com/forum/index.phpHobart 140 Handler w/ gasHyperTherm Powermax 380 Plasmaoxy/acetylene