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How to Make Black Lume

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Sporkboy
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How to Make Black Lume

Post by Sporkboy »

275632F4-2BF8-4446-ACB8-06C1307E8709.jpeg
247343BD-BFE9-4627-AE40-D26E93B2821D.jpeg
There isn’t much to this and it is derivative of an old forum post, but I am adding some images and a few refinements of my own. If you are interested in the genesis of the technique I am using, you can check (https://forum.replica-watch.info/forum/ ... y-findings) for the original forum post.

Lume + Black Printer Toner = Black Lume Powder

That is basically it, but there are always details that need to be nailed for it to work. Please note that this is still a work in progress, but the results were exciting enough to share.

1. Start with a small amount of lume powder.
2. Add very small amounts of toner (I used a toothpick) and mix the powders together.
3. Keep adding toner until it is a medium gray. You need a color that, when mixed with your binder, will end up just being black. I guess, very nearly black is the color you are going for. Too much and it kills the lume power.

Once you have that, you can mix a small amount and give your watch hands a little stealth lume. The example here was using the lighter gray powder.
8C7ABE43-8EF7-4B3A-B6A7-6549D5BDD124.jpeg
Here we have (L to R) toner, dark gray, medium gray and straight green lume from www.culturehustle.com.
359E114B-9659-49B0-8AC4-9D02F2954888.jpeg
With the lights dimmed low you can clearly see the difference in light emitting properties of the different powders.
314A51C5-92D3-4A23-86D2-90599C191027.jpeg
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watchpalooza
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Re: How to Make Black Lume

Post by watchpalooza »

Sporkboy wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 3:15 pm 275632F4-2BF8-4446-ACB8-06C1307E8709.jpeg
247343BD-BFE9-4627-AE40-D26E93B2821D.jpeg

There isn’t much to this and it is derivative of an old forum post, but I am adding some images and a few refinements of my own. If you are interested in the genesis of the technique I am using, you can check (https://forum.replica-watch.info/forum/ ... y-findings) for the original forum post.

Lume + Black Printer Toner = Black Lume Powder

That is basically it, but there are always details that need to be nailed for it to work. Please note that this is still a work in progress, but the results were exciting enough to share.

1. Start with a small amount of lume powder.
2. Add very small amounts of toner (I used a toothpick) and mix the powders together.
3. Keep adding toner until it is a medium gray. You need a color that, when mixed with your binder, will end up just being black. I guess, very nearly black is the color you are going for. Too much and it kills the lume power.

Once you have that, you can mix a small amount and give your watch hands a little stealth lume. The example here was using the lighter gray powder.
8C7ABE43-8EF7-4B3A-B6A7-6549D5BDD124.jpeg

Here we have (L to R) toner, dark gray, medium gray and straight green lume from www.culturehustle.com.
359E114B-9659-49B0-8AC4-9D02F2954888.jpeg
With the lights dimmed low you can clearly see the difference in light emitting properties of the different powders.
314A51C5-92D3-4A23-86D2-90599C191027.jpeg
That's just cool.
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Re: How to Make Black Lume

Post by AndroidIsAwesome »

That's pretty cool. What if you took a plastic case watch like a marathon or luminox etc and painted the entire thing in this? So it looks like black resin case but at night it glows lol
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Re: How to Make Black Lume

Post by Sporkboy »

AndroidIsAwesome wrote:That's pretty cool. What if you took a plastic case watch like a marathon or luminox etc and painted the entire thing in this? So it looks like black resin case but at night it glows lol
I think that the binder would flake off. I would have to scratch the case to hell to get it to stick, so probably not something you would want to do to a nicer field quartz like you mention. I do have a castoff resin Timex case though, so I could try it out since I will be mixing some of this up soon anyway...

The resin does cure shiny, so you would lose some of that non-reflective resin field watch goodness. I think that I can get a matte version of it (UV-cure nail polish topcoat matte?), but that isn’t something I have on hand.
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