Where can I get black hardware?

[Axtman]

It seems like every amp or piece of equipment I work on always has at least one screw missing. Most screws are not a problem but where can I buy black screws?

[xtian]

mcmaster.com

[Justin Thomas]

I usually "make my own"... Matte black spraypaint...

Justin

[nsubulysses]

reliablehardware.com can be good.

Mcmaster is where it's at though, they have it all.

I think Justin is joking but paint will chip off and look weirder than if you never painted it in the first place. Of course, i've done it.

[Chuck H]

I've done it too (paint screw heads). Not great. Fails sooner. But if you sputz the finish on any black screw head (including factory finishes) because the driver doesn't grab fast I find a black marker pressed into the groove or phillips indent to be very useful.

[mozz]

I buy most my screws, bolts and other stuff from these guys. Black, stainless or cheap zinc. May not have everything guitar oriented but a decent selection.
https://www.albanycountyfasteners.com/

[nosaj]

I buy most my screws, bolts and other stuff from these guys. Black, stainless or cheap zinc. May not have everything guitar oriented but a decent selection.
https://www.albanycountyfasteners.com/

i have found the analine dye we cut with acetone to spray as toner on wood makes a nice look on metal. I'll see if this next week I can dip a piece I have a chrome tie point(for rope) I can dip. I'll do one side black one side brown.

nosaj

[Enzo]

Whenever I needed black anodized stuff like PV uses, or the wide head chrome sheet metal screws like Fender uses, I just tack a bag onto some parts order from PV or Fender. Then I get the exact matching hardware.

[drewl]

I usually "make my own"... Matte black spraypaint...

Justin

Or a Sharpie!

MCM has black metal corners and handle hardware.
And speaking of hardware, hardware stores like Home Depot as all kinds of stuff, trim rings, metric screws, black screws.
A little more expensive though.

[nevetslab]

McMaster-Carr has decent supplies, but not all. There used to be a local Metric hardware supply store here in Burbank, CA that was very convenient, and always had what I needed. They moved out to Santa Clarita, outside my driving range, but, here's there contact info:

https://www.metricspecialties.com/contact-us.html

Also Best West Fasteners in Sun Valley, CA, up the road from me in Burbank, CA. Mostly non-metric, reasonable prices. Their contact info is:

https://bestwestfastener.com/

In production at BGW Systems, we bought most of our hardware thru Freeway Fasteners, though we were buying production qty's. Due to that, getting small qty's of other non-production hardware thru them was easy. You're apt to find min qty issues with the majority of hardware vendors. But, spend some time on the internet.....resources are out there. I've never had much luck with Home Depot and non-industrial stores like that for hardware.

[Reader]

Also try www.boltdepot.com
They will sell small quantites and I know they have black screws.

[nevetslab]

What usually shows up in a search for Black machine screws are Stainless Steel Black Oxide finish. Non-stainless steel in black are Zinc plated black machine screws.

[J M Fahey]

Yes.
Black "hardware" is a way too wide question, different answers depending on which kind we are talking about.

Stamped sheet metal such as strip handle end caps and metal corner protectors , and quite a few guitar/bass tuner heads , bridges, etc. , are spray painted, old stuff with a special synthetic oil type which "only" cures in an oven , or modern type which is electrostatic "dust" painted, again oven cured or melted on metal surface.
Both are very tough, but way too thick, literally, for screw heads and such.

So as mentioned above, screws get some chemical or electrochemical treatment.

For home improvised solutions I suggest gun type "blue", which is chemical.

Touch up "blue" is fake but quite acceptable, it involves some kind of sulfur-to-metal reaction ; or the real blue which involves boiling parts in a caustic soda based very nasty solution ... madness for a couple screws; very justified if you are treating half a pound of parts.

Black zinc plating is beyond home capabilities.

I make as much as I can "in house" and once set up a galvanizing tanks system, basically for my speaker frames ... after the first batch I disassembled and junked it, and disposed of very nasty chemicals, most of the baths containing cyanide.

Remembering that US Justice approved gas chamber operation involves dropping a canvas bag with a couple ounces cyanide crystals into a "soup bowl" containing some acid .

We had a famous accident in an Industrial neighbourhood where one zinc plating company illegally disposed of spent liquids into the public sewer system and a couple blocks away another one dropped clorhydric and sulphuric acid contaminated waste in the same sewer ... one whole family died, plus their Son worried that his elder parents didn´t answer phone or doorbell, plus doctors and paramedics trying to help ... only the ambulance driver who imagined what happened survived and called Firemen with oxygen tank breathing equipment ... a mess.

Not surprisingly, both involved Companies contributed generously to the local Mayor´s re-election campaign so "no culprits were found".
Oh well.

[TimmyP1955]

Diagraph GPX Classic paint pens do a pretty good job.