BMX Bars n Forks Paint Patina and Blueing Steel

I should have made an introduction to this video, but I just went right into it. So in this video, I had some used forks and bars that were all beat up, and I wanted to get them matching for a new build. I use paint stripper, manual sanding, and a 1/4 sheet sander to get the paint off. If I did it again, I would skip the paint stripper unless you have some of the really good (expensive) stuff. The forks were off an older DK BMX bike, and I think the bars were Sunday 4-piece bars. They were both in pretty bad shape (paint wise), but they are steel, so I decided to refinish them. At first, I wanted to use a gun blueing solution, like the guy in this video did:    • The Beauty of Blueing Raw Steel - Vin...  . But it wasn't dark enough. So I sanded them down a little (again), and used an antique black steel patina (shown towards the end of the video, made by Metal Finish Supply Inc). It was not dark enough, so I put more of the Birchwood Super Blue on and let it sit outside for a couple weeks to rust a little. It still wasn't dark enough, so I got some matte black spray paint and added a very light coat. Then I buffed them with a t-shirt and the Super Blue. Then I added a matte clear coat. For the final buffing, I used a Magic Eraser sheet (the thin ones). After all that work, I'm very happy with how they came out. Here are some tips if you are going to use a liquid gun blue on steel bike parts (I did not follow all these tips because I was impatient and I wasn't too worried about the final finish because I wanted a distressed, industrial look anyway). After removing the paint, sand the metal super smooth, go up to a very fine grit sandpaper, like 500+. Any imperfections will affect the final finish. Wash the metal using Dawn soap, and then rinse very good and dry. Use gloves when handling after that, as the oil from your skin can affect the application. If you apply the liquid with cotton balls, like I did and the guy in that video linked above did, don't get too much on the cotton ball or it will drip everywhere. Start applying the solution at the bottom, so if it does drip it doesn't run down onto raw steel. You can do more than one application. Once you finish application, you can rinse it off immediately for a normal gun blue look. Leave it on longer for a more brown/rust tone. After rinsing, dry well if you don't want any rusting. Good luck!