I picked up 2 sheets of hot rolled this morning. I’ve bought a ton of these in the past year, but these 2 have some interesting variations. At first I wasn’t thrilled because I try to get sheets that are as uniform as possible but I actually think these are beautiful and I had a customer a couple months ago that was looking for something just like this. Does anyone know of a way to emulate this look?
Edit: I’m specifically talking about the color variation, which I haven’t seen before.
What look exactly?
Just looks like it’s P/O?
Here are some descriptions of various steel products. Perhaps you can identify.
Unless of course you just mean plain steel with a “wet” look?
If so, without it actually being wet, you can run a clear coat on it by itself.
This is a horrible example cause it’s a matte clear with a single light coat to keep the word “Master” from rubbing off -
But if you intentionally coat it with clear coat, whether rattle can or powder, it’ll look really shiny like the steel on your table.
I mean the color variation. I haven’t seen this in the material that I get and I always get the same hot rolled from the same supplier. Is this what it typically looks like when you get it?
My hot rolled looks like your hot rolled, yes.
First thing I do when I get it home is usually wipe down the top sheet with acetone as I don’t like the oil getting on my clothes and stuff.
I wonder if they’ve been giving me cold rolled (I don’t know why they would. My supplier charges $60 for a sheet of hot rolled and $95 for a sheet of cold rolled) but every sheet I’ve gotten from them has been just a fairly uniform dark gray like gunmetal.
Interesting.
Hot rolled and cold rolled cost the same here.
Here’s 16 gauge cold
And here’s 3/16" hot rolled (wiped down the oil already)
Cold rolled is always 10-15% more from my supplier, but it’s also oil free and usually… still rust free. The hot rolled is as you describe: gun metal colored; and slightly to very oily.
To your question though, you could maybe simulate that look by using hot rolled and a paint brush and either vinegar or citric acid solution. There are other threads about removing mill scale.
There are different grades of hot rolled from what I’ve been told by my supplier, which results in a different look of the millscale. What you get depends on the grade. The hot rolled from one supplier I use is a higher grade and always very uniform. I thought it was cold rolled at first from a little distance.
The hot rolled I get from another supplier has significant variations in the millscale. Which I have used as a “feature” in some work I’ve done.
This!
A36 is really common, then there’s a much higher grade like A52 and more.
