One possible solution would be to have the piece nickel plated and then brush it. I work in the food industry and we have many things nickel plated, although it is not cheap, it is also not terrible. (Although that could be defined differently for different jobs.)

Rick Crawford at Smoky Forge

Sandra,

You can get a nice brushed finish on stainless by using Scotchbrite Surface Conditioning Wheels made by 3M. They're available in differeing grades from MSC Industrial Supply and other places. You'll have to experiment to see which grade is right for your particular application.

If the customer really wants the "color" of nickel or pewter, then you have a tougher problem. Nickel can be plated over stainless, after first plating with copper, but it isn't cheap and you'll need to do the brushed finish first, then plate, the lightly brush finish it again after the plating. You don't want to buff all the plating away with the Scotchbrite wheel, so you need to do most of the work before the plating.

The pewter color is going to be the toughest to get. You might be able to get it by first doing the brushed finish on the stainless then etching the surface with an oxalic acid solution. That should give you that dull grey color, I think.

The bottom line is, you need to do some experimenting.

You could consider various other types of finishes- I needle scale a lot of stainless, with an air powered needle scaler, which makes for a nice, shiny but not mirrored, textured finish.
Or, you could sandblast it, for a dull gray finish, or glass bead it, for a finish that is still matte, but with again not to silvery.

Or wire brush it.

Or, as Rich suggested, use a 3M red fuzzy pad, either in a disc grinder, or you can get 3M fuzzy belts for belt sanders.

All of these finishes can also be combined with electropolishing, which is a commercial electric/acid finishing process. It creates quite an interesting finish to sandblast then electropolish, for example.

But Stainless will always be stainless. Not nickel. And, since real nickel costs about 5 times what stainless does, I would stick with the stainless.

This is a big subject- but basically, electropolishing can be thought of as like plating, only in reverse.
A power supply is hooked up, backwards from what you would use for plating, and the flow of electricity strips away the top layer of the stainless, rather than adding a layer as in plating.

Small units are made to clean up welds in stainless steel, like the one from Walter-
http://www.jwalterinc.com/walter_us/servlet/NewProdDetail?item=54D213

Walter also makes a variety of citric and other acid products that clean stainless without electricity.

Commercially, electropolishing is done in tanks with dilute phosphoric acid, and large power supplies.
I send mine out to a commercial polisher that has a 4 foot by 4 foot by 8 foot tank, and a 1000 amp power supply. It makes short work of mill scale, even on heavily forged pieces.

Electropolishing, like plating, only takes what you start with and makes it look shiny- so whatever finish you start with, be it mirror polish or rough hammer texture, will still be that finish, just shinier.

It makes graffiti cleanup very easy- since there is no finish whatsoever on the stainless, virtually any cleaner can be used, as long as its nonabrasive. Simple Green will take off most graffiti from pens, and sometimes even spray paint.
I think electropolished stainless is one of the best finishes in a high vandalism environment.

I find that polishing costs me about what powdercoating would- but it will never peel, fade, or need repainting.

This is dependant, of course, on having a commercial polisher available, and they are rare. Many plating companies do small scale polishing, and they usually know who does it if they dont, so I would start to look by calling your local plater.

These guys are big, and expensive-
http://www.electromatic.com/

you might try heating the stainless until it blackens then bring the finish up from there.sanding, scotchbrite etc until it meets the look you want.

try it on a small piece first...oh, watch out for the gasses when heating the stainless

Sandra,

You can use an orbatal sander; however, with stainless and depending on the size, it will take alot of work.

Don T.

Thank you all, for your input. Unfortunately we haven't had any time to put any of them into use yet but we hopefully will in the near future. This is a wonderful site.

Sandra Moses Owner, Designer Ablaze MetalArt & Design 250-338-2339 www.AblazeMetalArt.com info@AblazeMetalArt.com