Nitre bluing steel and other metals

[Eris]

I am working on a craft project, and I would like to nitre blue some small metal bits for accent pieces. Unfortunately, the type of small metal bits I'm looking to nitre blue are nuts or washers. Well, you can't blue stainless steel! I am now left with several questions that Google has failed to help me with:

1. Are there any nuts or washers I could purchase that CAN be nitre blued?
3. What metals are capable of taking a nitre blue finish? (Just steel?)
2. Does anyone here have the setup for doing this? Usually this process is used on old school guns, and we occasionally have overlap with reenactment groups... Thought it was worth asking...

[Stahlgrim]

the short answer is sort of. there are a number of chemical patinas that can be used on several alloys both ferrous and nonferrous.
try
http://www.surfinchemical.com/

[Atman]

My guess is that you have galvanized, not stainless, fasteners since they are far more common than stainless. If this is the case, they are simply mild steel with a zinc coating that can be removed chemically or by heating. Once this is gone, most larger sporting goods stores carry "cold bluing" that achieves a similar finish without the heating or noxious chemicals associated with traditional bluing. If you really want to do it the traditional way, check libraries for outdated books on gunsmithing.