Anyone know how to give stainless steel a dark gray or black finish that is durable? I know bluing wont wok, but how about parkerizing? is there anything that will work other than paint?

The only way I know of to blacken stainless steel is to send it to a company for a black oxide coating, i.e. bluing. There are four classes of black oxide/blue:

Class 1: Alkaline oxidizing. For wrought iron, cast and malleable irons, common carbon, and low alloy steels.

Class 2: Alkaline oxidizing. Use on certain corrosion resistant steel alloys tempered at less than 900°F.

Class 3: Fused salt oxidizing. For corrosion resistant steel alloys which are tempered at 900°F (482°C) or higher.

Class 4: Alkaline oxidizing. For other corrosion resistant steel alloys.

I copied this information from www.techplate.com, the URL for their black oxide info page is here:

[url]http://www.techplate.com/black_oxide_coating.htm[/url]

Techplate, or any other finishing company, should be able to put a black oxide finish on your stainless.

Or, if you're set up to do hot bluing (with all the hardware required), you can get the chemicals from Brownells:

[url]http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/Store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1103[/url]

Well, these guys seem to know how to do everything like that

[url]http://black-oxide.com/steel-zinc-aluminum-blackening.html[/url]

It doesn't look like they cater to hobby crowd- but perhaps they can clue you in to a metal shop that will do the work for you.

It looks like all you need is a way to really clean your parts, and some new kitty-litter pans to hold the chemicals. The chemicals do not appear to be very dangerous.

Pete

thanks to whoever on this board tipped me to these guys.

[url=http://www.robarguns.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=4&tabindex=2]Robar[/url]

A friend had an Armalite AR-10, and did not like the shiny stainless barrel.  He sent the upper, less the bolt carrier assy, to Olympic Arms.  For about $100 they disassembled it, black oxided, and reassembled it.  It came back with a smooth, even flat black that almost perfectly matched the black anodizing on the upper receiver, differing only in the amount of sheen.

The reassembly seemed to be done very well, no scratches or other marks, everything perfect.

And it was not even Oly's product.

[url=http://www.krylon.com/]Krylon[/url] [jump]

Thanks guys!

I second what "A_Free_Man" says.  Oly's S.S. barrels have a beautiful, dull black finish.  Don't know what the process is, but it works.

I used Dura-coat and I'm really happy with the finish.

I went to the auto parts store and got some high temperature exhaust manifold paint.

I  pulled the handguards off, and degreased the stainless barrel, masked off the front sight, and gave it two good coats of matte charcoal black.  Heat cured it with 10 magazines of ammo, and it quit stinking.

It works great, looks completely natural, and you can't tell it's stainless unless you look up into the handguard holes.  I only painted the part that catches the light.

One small problem: The Bushmaster stainless barrel has a stepped crown, and ten shots will blast the muzzle face clean, right back to shiny stainless.  I touch that up with a black magic marker after I clean the rile.