stove enamel

I havent seen any british bikes with real baked enamel finishes- but I doubt that is what they have on em. Baked porcelean enamel, like the finish used in old stoves, is a very fussy finish. It works best on uniform thickness cold rolled steels. The way it works is they spray or sprinkle a powder glass onto the metal, then put it in an oven, and the glass melts and fuses into a uniform surface. So it works very poorly on complicated 3 d surfaces, and usually, in its liquid phase, will drip off the bottoms of things like bike frames would look downright ugly.

There are a few tricks to get "some" coverage on vertical surfaces, but basically it would be just about the toughest problem possible to get good looking coverage on a bike frame.

Then, once you got it on, it would chip pretty easily.

My guess is what you actually saw was a fancy powdercoated finish, or an old fashioned baked on paint finish.

There are lots of powdercoaters who do amazing things on bike frames- like these guys, for instance-

This company makes an amazing array of powder coatings, that look like colored chrome, rocks, aged metal, sandblasted bronze, patinaed copper, leather, and more- Not cheap, but tough stuff that looks unlike anything else.

You failed to mention where you are in the world, US I presume. Trimite is a UK supplier that do stove enamels amongst other things and list a US site

. I had considered doing it in the past but never did. My experience with it is Argos Racing Cycles in Bristol UK who repaired a damaged frame for me. They painted the frame in a etching stove enamel primer and that stuff was tough as some years later when I repainted the frame I sandblasted it and it was very resistant to the sandblasting unlike any other finish I have come across. The top coat which I applied came straight off but the primer took much longer.

Stove enamel >Hi,

Its true- what I think of when you say "stove enamel" is a baked on porcelin finish, which is essentially glass, like in older stoves, "cowboy coffee pots" and other, speckled, mainly black or dark blue with white speckles.

If all you are talking about is an english term for a baked enamel finish- well, there are many many high quality industrial paint finishes, of which the "trimite" is one, which would work great on a bike frame.

Look in your local yellow pages under "industrial coatings" and see if there are any painters who do this type of work- good prep is essential, sandblasting or glass beading would be good. I think epoxy finishes would be the best- I have some friends who do outdoor metalwork who use a 2 part catalysed polyurethane paint that is incredibly tough and fade resistant, but likes a 500 degree or so oven to set the finish.

Definitely a job for a pro shop.