BLACK fret wire

[dmraco]

what do you guys think of black fret wire?  anyone supple this color?

 

[MUYFUE]

I'd LOVE it. never seen it though  :sad:

 

[line6man]

The problem is that black would need to be a coating of some sort, which would wear out.

 

[whyachi]

It would be expensive, but you could always use ruthenium plating. Its normally added to platinum for strength and it resists acid from hands well. Its black metal, but rare and costs more than platinum does. I looked into a ruthenium bridge and the upcharge was over $150.

 

[rockskate4x]

It would be expensive, but you could always use ruthenium plating. Its normally added to platinum for strength and it resists acid from hands well.

In that case it would be awesome :headbang:

 

[whyachi]

Check out Schaller's website. They offer ruthenium plating for obscene upcharges. Allparts is the only place I found that will special order it. Its about 3-4x the price, takes 6+ weeks and they need a 50% deposit up front. I don't believe they do fretwire though.

 

[Schlieren]

Schaller's backorder duration, so say many distributors both in North America as well as Europe, sometimes can extend 12 months, or simply "never".

Which is a shame, since they seem to manufacture a lot of pleasing-looking stuff.

 

[hannaugh]

It would be even cooler if it was like gun metal color.

 

[whyachi]

It would be even cooler if it was like gun metal color.

It is, LINK.

 

[Schlieren]

It would be even cooler if it was like gun metal color.

It is, LINK.

Thomann Music (www.thomann.de) sells a lot of schaller ruthenium hardware, that's where I'd go to buy it.

 

[-CB-]

Sherman, set the WayBack machine to 1975, Mr Buscemi's chemestry class......

As I recall, you can take bromine, coat copper with it (and frets are essentially copper), and its active enough, being a halide, that its reaction with the copper would turn the copper quite black, and that the black color would not be on the surface, but penetrate the metals structure to an amazing distance (ie, it cant be polished out).

So... a little bromine might do the trick to turn regular fretwire into black beauties.

 

[line6man]

coat copper with it (and frets are essentially copper)

I thought frets were made of nickel or stainless steel?
(Or is nickel made up of some copper? I don't know squat about metals.)

 

[Volitions Advocate]

you can change the colour of titanium with electrolysis.. or something.. can't you?

*researches*...


Hmmmm.....
http://www.titaniumrings.com/anodcolors.html

 

[whyachi]

Nickel and copper are completely seperate elements, and frets are mainly nickel. The gold frets Warmoth offers are colored with copper.

 

[blue313]

Normal frets are copper/zinc (aka brass) with a percentage of nickel in them.  18% nickel is a fairly hard fret.

 

[jackthehack]

I'd definitely buy that, but think we'd probably have seen it before, but there's too many issues with wearing the color away. You chemists/metallurgists need to figure this out so it can be a viable option.

 

[DangerousR6]

It could be done with a process called PVD(Physical Vapor Deposition).. It could also possibly be done in a black oxide, or a black nitride finish...Which are used on a lot of knives these days, I have a CRKT that has a black nitride coating, and it's bad to the bone.... :laughing7:

 

[dmraco]

lots of cool options here...wish I was a chemist...