OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Paint and Decals Tips for Getting a Good Hammertone Finish

Hey Guys,

I've been practicing applying hammertone paint from a spray can (White Knight) and I am having mixed results. I am able to get a nice consistent hammered look, however the paint is actually smooth. Is this normal for spray can hammertone paint?

I have tried a few different techniques, I start with a mist coat followed by multiple passes of even coats to build up the paint and get the hammered effect. I find that the heavier coats resulted in more of a hammered look, however both were smooth.

Should I be doing 1 mist coat followed by 1 heavy coat? then let it dry before next coat?

I'd appreciate some help.
Cheers.

I guess a heavy coat is always subjected to getting runs. There's a fine line between a good coat and a coat full of paint runs.

Yes a mist coat (dust coat as it's normally referred to)and then a medium flow coat, then let it go off for about 15 minutes and follow up with another decent final coat.

A lot of spray cans are full of nothing more than a bit of colour and a majority of thinners to make it go off quicker, thus the coat is far smoother due to a lack of paint solids that give you the build up, thus why I use a gun and mix my own.

Cheers,
BB.

Thanks BB,

A bit off topic, but what spray gun do you recommend? I don't own an air compressor, so I'd have to buy an air compressor unless I go for an airless gun.

Hey BB,

I tried your technique and it produced the best results yet! Here is a pic.


It looks more hammered than it feels. I'll have to wait and see if it has flattened out by the morning.

I'm going to try a few more tests so I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers,
GT

That looks absolutely fabulous, It's not really meant to be a rough finish, just looks like it to optically cover up the imperfections in the steel underneath, that's why it was always used on machinery with castings involved.

As far as gun choice is concerned I've always used "Iwata" brand spray guns. The W-71 is my favourite weapon of choice as it's small with a 500ml pot.

I still haven't migrated to gravity feed guns as yet.

Cheers,
BB.

After a few more test runs, I sprayed my mower deck on the weekend. I couldn't start as early as planned so it was a bit warmer than I would have liked, and I think that affected the hammer finish. It came out OK, but not as good as the sample above.

What I have realised is:
The hammered effect is easier to get right in the cooler temps.
You have to mist over the same section a few times for the effect to develop. I found that a circular motion worked well.
The White Knight paint is good, however spray cans don't have a wide enough spray pattern to get a consistent effect on a large surface.

I actually did one coat that must have been too light as it didn't result in any hammered pattern. It was just metallic. Then I bumped the wet paint with the bottom of the can, I got the shits so I sprayed that spot to level it out, and miraculously it produces a nice hammered effect.

So, off to Bunnings for another can. It took another full another can to cover the whole body, it looked OK, so I left it in the sun to bake. Later that night I noticed that some areas had a bit of overspray, it was rough to touch and a bit dull. So I gave it a quick polish and it seems to have cleaned it up.

My main concern is that I've probably laid down too much paint and it's not going to cure to a hard finish.

I'm restoring this mower for regular use, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

Next time I'll probably send it to the powder coaters! Does anyone know the rough costs for powder coating?

Hi GT, or should I say [Censored] Johnson ?

Honestly that's a better result than any mower manufacturer will come up with.

As far as Powder Coating is concerned it's the worst thing for mowers as once the surface is compromised (chipped, cracked or scratched) the moisture will creep in underneath and we all know what the result of that will be.

Powder Coating is Hygroscopic.

Cheers,
BB.