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Posted by David Sherman on Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 12:57:20 :
In Reply to: "Parkerizing" is a name brand. Green is from baked on posted by Chriscase on Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 09:14:45 :
From my reading, zinc in phosphoric acid gives you a light gray finish, and manganese gives a dark gray/black finish. Manganese dioxide is pretty commonly available and would probably dissolve in the acid. I read that during WWII they switched from manganese parkerizing to zinc parkerizing because manganese was scarce, but that doesn't make much sense to me because compared to what was used in manganese steel, the amount used in parkerizing would be tiny. I haven't found any formulas, though, and I know that with any sort of metal-treating chemicals, electroplating, cold bluing, etc., they start with the basic chemistry and then add various magic ingredients to get good results. The "secret sauce" usually does things like give a more even finish, a better color, or better adhesion.