Blackened Steel - Tumblr Posts

Stone Exterior in Salt Lake City An illustration of a substantial transitional black one-story exterior home design with shingles

This dragon tail is primarily made of blackened stainless steel. It’s a material that I always enjoy using, though it’s got its quirks. The black is formed by a particular oxidizing process that turns the surface into magnetite, which is pretty cool. It’s the same process used to make guns black, I believe. The finish ends up being a slightly varied matte black, which I just really like. It does tend to rub off some black for a while when it’s fresh, most of which is oils from the manufacturing process. And while the steel is stainless, the oxide surface can develop some rusty patches over time. Making sure it’s not wet for too long helps, and a bit of oil can be used to wipe off any rust that does form.

That turned into care instructions for the material, oops.

The commissioner for this tail also requested a very small blue underbelly (made of anodized aluminum). Not enough to see most of the time unless you raised the tail up. It was a neat idea, and I found it fun to do.

In-progress shot for a dragon tail made of blackened stainless steel. I actually just finished this up late last night, but need to get photos of it today.

The blackened part of the steel is a chemically-produced oxide layer, and I always like the matte surface. It usually has a bit of oil and grime left over from the manufacturing process, but I'd forgotten how this particular batch was more dusty than normal.

Dragon tail in blackened stainless steel! It’s been a while since I got to make something with this material, it’s one of my favorites. Really sturdy, and I very much enjoy the matte, slightly textured surface finish. Though it can develop surface rust if it gets wet, and when it’s new it has some dark oil and dusty residue left over from the manufacturing process which tends to rub off onto your hands.

This tail measures in at 30 inches from tip to the top of the belt loop, and weighs in at 3 pounds 14 ounces. It’s also got a lobster clasp at the tip, which is good for attaching various things to for fun.

Here’s an in-progress shot of it that shows the texture of the scales better. You can also see the lobster clasp at the tip in that photo.

And the last dragon tail to upload today! It’s made primarily of blackened stainless steel. This one was a short one, only 24 inches long (though coming in at 3 lbs 2 oz, because steel is heavier than aluminum).

I think I need to edit the tip, though. The commissioner’s character had a specific pattern of blue on the tip. I didn’t want to use anodized aluminum there because it tends to get scratched by the steel. Also the commissioner wanted a light blue/teal, where the normal anodized aluminum blue is a deeper royal blue. So I suggested anodized titanium, which I had just enough of left over from a previous project. But the titanium turned out to have rather less contrast with the steel than I’d expected.

I had an idea for how to pad between the steel and the aluminum, so I think I’m going to build an alternate tip, see how it looks, check with the commissioner, and maybe swap it out.

On the upside, this may have been my fasted tail constructed ever. I started it after an early dinner yesterday, and I’d gotten it finished by about 1AM. The short size helped, of course, but man. This was the 5th tail I’d made in a month. I wonder if my speed has improved since the last time I carefully timed myself.

While I had a pile of dragon tails on hand, I just figured I would get some shots of them all together. We got the small in blackened steel and anodized titanium, the medium in black and green, and the large in yellow orange and red.

Aren’t they adorable when they cuddle together like that?

This shirt was sitting in my closet unfinished for a few years, but I finally filled in the holes I’d left in it when I ran out of rings the first time. (Here’s some photos of it as I’d left it previously.)

It’s got a black-on-black inlaid pattern, which showed way up better than I’d originally expected it to. The background is black anodized aluminum woven with black EPDM rubber rings, so it stretches and is super light. The inlay pattern is blackened stainless steel. The blackened stainless is a bit more of a matte dark gray, so there’s a bit of a color and reflectivity difference, but most of the contrast I think comes from the rubber rubber rings being a little bit thicker than the metal rings. So the symbol, made with just metal rings, lets more skin show through than the background does.

The symbol is the Greek letter rho with the number 17 inside. It’s a reference from a group I was in back in college.

Now that the whole thing is filled in and solid it’s a bit tighter than it had been before it was done, so I might end up going in and adding a couple more rows so it’s easier to put on and take off. But I’m quite happy with how it’s nice and skin-tight, so I wouldn’t want to end up with it being loose. I might expand the straps a bit though. If I wanted to experiment with sleeves again this might be a reasonable project to do that on, but I am pretty happy with this form factor.

A new dragon tail made in anodized titanium and blackened stainless steel. It uses teal, purple and violet titanium, in a pattern that gives an image of larger scales overlapping down its length. It’s got a full line of metal spikes along the spine, and a lobster clasp at the tip to attach things onto.

The anodized titanium is a rare treat to work with. It’s expensive and I need to custom-order it from the manufacturer and I’m always low-key worried they’ll tell me to go away one of these times, but damn if it isn’t just stunningly beautiful when it’s good. I really love the variation and texture on every scale, and I like putting together patterns to mix the colors in with each other and try to enhance that effect. In this batch the teal scales shifted on the edge of sea green and blue with hints of purple, the purple was a more muted maroon-ish tone with a blue base, and the violet was a great vibrant tone with occasional shifts towards rose-gold. The colors aren’t quite iridescent, but they definitely look like they were pulled out of the swirling colors of a soap bubble and pumped up to full saturation.

The blackened stainless steel is fun too. I guess I just really enjoy coloring processes that don’t rely on dyes like anodized aluminum does.

This tail is a medium length, measuring in at 31 inches from the tip to the top of the belt line, and it weighs 3 pounds 11 ounces.

Loft-Style Living Room in Seattle Image shows a medium-sized, contemporary living room with a light wood floor, beige walls, a standard fireplace, a metal fireplace, and a wall-mounted television.