Just have a minute, Bryan before I head off to work. Good points, all. Copper is not exactly my favorite color, which is why I'm happy with the C8 in the multi shades. My best experiment was with my Yezl Z1 - turned out gunmetal/brown, not really copper. Breathed new life into a light I didn't really like before. The act of taking it apart and putting it back together seems to have helped it's performance. I had another light that I could not get completely apart so I couldn't bake it. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to fully disassemble it, but for now I'm afraid I'll break it if I do.
I found watching the process fascinating. In the oven the color change was more gradual, but also harder to see. Looking at all the different colors and hues achieved on different lights was cool. This has been a great thread.
I tried this out on a cheap torch i got for my daughter. I put it under the grill as close as I could with some foil under neath. It took about 10 minutes to turn this bronze colour. Its a nice colour though the photos dont do it justice.
(sorry if the photos arn't great its my first attempt)
I would be suprised if baking the sand will change the color very much. If you bake a black host long enough it will go a sand colour but it will need to get very hot. I have noticed baking can improve the anno on some poorly ano’d lights.
Sorta hated this host for the most part. Something kinda cool about it now. I am presently debating about whether or not to put the head and the tail cap in as well, but for much longer so they come out a brighter copper colour. I like contrasting colours.
It really did come out gold. Well, the head and the knurled part of the body anyway. There is actually a separate piece between the knurling and the head which came out a sort of greyish army green type colour. The tail piece came out the same way, although it’s hard to tell in the photo. Seems that there were two different sorts of anodizing in play.
Now that you mention it, I can see the greenish tint. That turned out very nice. I like it much better than the Solarforce sand color (which looks more like a pimp's tooth :p ).
It really does look very very nice in person, and there is more contrast between the greyish green and the gold. But I only have my shitty phone camera to use at the moment unfortunately.