Blackening sights

jabberwo · Post by **jabberwo** » Sat May 24, 2014 4:06 pm

When I get into my position and line up the sights on my Toz, the front sight appears to be grey, not black. Over my long years of shooting I've heard of guys blackening their sights, but never actually seen it. What does that really mean? How do you do it?

Thanks,
Jab

gitkrunk · Post by **gitkrunk** » Sat May 24, 2014 5:04 pm

This what I use

http://www.sbsdistributing.com/index.ph ... uperSmoker

RandomShotz · Post by **RandomShotz** » Sat May 24, 2014 5:15 pm

Me too. It works well once you get the hang of it. It's a carbide torch, like the old miner's headlamps, and it works by squirting a little bit of water into a chamber with calcium carbide. The resultant flame is nicely smokey. However, if you give it a bit too much water you will get about a 10" flame that is quite impressive but not all that useful for sight blackening. Trust me.

Roger

william · Post by **william** » Sat May 24, 2014 5:18 pm

Sorry for the double post.

william · Post by **william** » Sat May 24, 2014 5:18 pm

You can blacken sights without buying a thing.

1. Fold a strip of masking tape in half (adhesive to adhesive) the long way.
2. Light one end only.
3. Pass your front sight through the column of black smoke.
4. Drop the burning strip (not your pistol) on the ground and stamp the flame out.
5. Share the tip with your friends.

I think I've included all the necessary consumer warnings, although I'm sure Rover can come up with some more.

Rover · Post by **Rover** » Sat May 24, 2014 5:34 pm

Don't burn yourself or breathe the fumes.

Also, a votive candle or stub works well. You can steal them from your local church.

ScottSimmonds · Post by **ScottSimmonds** » Sat May 24, 2014 6:35 pm

Black sharpie

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » Sat May 24, 2014 11:37 pm

Nah, tried black Sharpie. Too shiny and not really black, more of a dark purple. In most lighting it'll work fine to cover up wear on a sight blade, but find yourself under a light at the wrong angle and it'll light up like fresh glossy paint.

john bickar · Post by **john bickar** » Sat May 24, 2014 11:39 pm

Rover wrote:Also, a votive candle or stub works well. You can steal them from your local church.

I'm always concerned I'll be struck by lightning or burst into flames when I walk into a church. Never thought of bringing my pistols to get the sights blackened as a bonus side effect.

Spencer · Post by **Spencer** » Sun May 25, 2014 3:41 am

try viewtopic.php?t=14156&highlight=blackening

Spaceball · Post by **Spaceball** » Sun May 25, 2014 3:48 am

You could try washable black hairspray.
It looks black (except when you compare to a flame back, then it looks a little grey) and works well. Easy to clean off and you don't need to worry about carbide and the fun that goes with that.

dronning · Post by **dronning** » Sun May 25, 2014 8:21 am

+1 on the Ray Vin Super Smoker.

I had been using one on my rifle sights and never gave it a thought about using it on the pistol because we usually shoot at covered ranges. I took it with me when shooting an EIC match at an uncovered range, I'll never shoot iron sights without it again - even at covered ranges or indoors because there are always lighting challenges.

Dave

morten · Post by **morten** » Sun May 25, 2014 12:09 pm

I use camphor to blacken my sights

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Refined-Camphor ... 19d1f3ec2d

When it burns you get a realy nice soot evenly spread on you sights.

Smells good to :-)

Fatwood is also great to blacken sights. Fatwood is derived from the heartwood of pine trees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatwood

Fortitudo Dei · Post by **Fortitudo Dei** » Sun May 25, 2014 4:52 pm

+1 on camphor. I use the empty pellet tin method to store, burn and extinguish the flame. For some reason, every Indian food emporium / grocery store around here sells camphor tablets. It's very cheap and one tablet lasts for ages. I normally break a whole tablet into three or four smaller pieces and use these one at a time.

Edit: Ah! So this is why they sell camphor in Indian grocery stores. Blacken your sights and pay homage to Shiva at the same time!

Spencer · Post by **Spencer** » Mon May 26, 2014 1:45 am

Fortitudo Dei wrote:+1 on camphor. I use the empty pellet tin method to store, burn and extinguish the flame. For some reason, every Indian food emporium / grocery store around here sells camphor tablets. It's very cheap and one tablet lasts for ages. I normally break a whole tablet into three or four smaller pieces and use these one at a time.

Edit: Ah! So this is why they sell camphor in Indian grocery stores. Blacken your sights and pay homage to Shiva at the same time!

1 - empty pellet 'tins' are OK, but a metal container for percussion caps takes up less space: unfortunately they come in plastic containers these days so my small stock of metal containers is precious.
2 - put some camphor in your gun safe, tool box, wherever, to help prevent rusting.

paw080 · Post by **paw080** » Mon May 26, 2014 11:01 am

Hi, Make that +2 (or is that +3?) on the use of twisted masking tape(tan seems best).

I learned about the exotic masking tape smoker several years ago on this very Forum.

Tony

madmull · Post by **madmull** » Mon May 26, 2014 1:05 pm

i use this

but the cheapest solution is to light a candle and hold the flame near the foresight

mull

jabberwo · Post by **jabberwo** » Mon May 26, 2014 4:25 pm

Thanks for all the suggestions! I think I'll try the exotic masking tape and candle suggestions first since they can be done tonight before my next practice session. But, when I watched the Ray-Vin demo video, I saw that he passed the flame right onto his sight. So I'm confused on how this really works. To blacken a sight do you want the sight in the flame, or in the column of rising smoke?

Thanks,
Jab

Rover · Post by **Rover** » Mon May 26, 2014 5:49 pm

In the flame.

Gwhite · Post by **Gwhite** » Mon May 26, 2014 6:03 pm

The "Black Match" lighter is a nice solution, but nearly impossible to find in the USA. The masking tape & camphor may work fine, but you need to bring matches or a lighter anyway. Having a lighter that can blacken the sights certainly simplifies matters, although they are a bit pricey.

I know I've seen them for sale in the US, but I can't find them anywhere at the moment. It's possible they can't be shipped by air, which complicates things.