Antiquing Stainless Steel?

[East_TN_Patriot]

Hey all! I just picked up one of the last few 1892 Hartford rifles from EMF (basically a Rossi 92). 

The only one they had left in 45 Colt was one in stainless.  It looks to be a nice little rifle, but the stainless is, well... stainless.   

My two wheelguns are blue/case hardened and the stainless rifle just looks too modern and shiny next to those.  Does anyone have any ideas on how I could make the finish look more antiqued and less modern? 

[Pettifogger]

Take it apart and have the major parts bead blasted.  Will give it a nice matt appearance.

[East_TN_Patriot]

Take it apart and have the major parts bead blasted.  Will give it a nice matt appearance.

That's a possibility. I was thinking it would be nice to try and give it some sort of look as if it had been blued or case hardened at some point, but it was wearing off. I saw online that there are chemicals to "blacken" stainless steel, but without any pics to look at, I'm not so sure I want to plop down any money to try it.

[Pettifogger]

It is "stainless" steel.  Depending on the quality of the stainless you aren't going to stain it with any chemicals you can readily buy.  Kinda the point of stainless.

[East_TN_Patriot]

It is "stainless" steel.  Depending on the quality of the stainless you aren't going to stain it with any chemicals you can readily buy.  Kinda the point of stainless.

Yeah... I know... a guy can hope.  If push came to shove I could have it black hard chromed, but it's not quite that big of a deal to me.

[Montana Slim]

Don't have my handbooks handy...but, yes, some grades of stainless can be darkened. Black-oxide is one type of surface coloring that comes to mind.... at least it works on 420 series stainless. So, you might try a test with ordinary cold gun blue to see if there is any effect.

Slim