Rustoleum hammered tricks?

So, ive seen a lot of recommendations for rustoleum hammered. Whats the trick here? Ive tried it, and cant seem to get consistent results. Ive seen y'all do awesome things with it, so it has to be me. 

Im planning on doing a set of steel wheels when i get it figured out. 

I've tried it once and had an extreme mess on my hands.

I have no tips for you.

The bash bar on $h!tbarge is rustoleum hammered black. It's inconsistent in color and texture out of the can, even well shaken, I love the paint.

It's fantastic and thick, but if your concern is how good it looks.  You might want to look elsewhere.

I put that E36 M3 on everything. I've never had problems, but I've noticed the current stuff isn't quite as...hammered(?) as the stuff I used years ago. 

Came here to see passed-out hookers with graffiti on them. Leaving with a new google search idea.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Came here to see passed-out hookers with graffiti on them. Leaving with a new google search idea.

You and me both. 

I love this place. 

As far as the INTENDED topic,  i was thinking more consistently hammered finish. My experience is with the silver, and half to three quarters of the stuff i sprayed on the neon patrs was a uniform silver x with no evidence of hammered finish at all. But other spots look exactly like the can lid. 

I sprayed some black on a wrought iron patio set of chairs and table. Looked good right after application but dried slightly different.color then expected.  Looked good for several months then I think UV started to get to it. Started to dull and turn a whitish dull color. Then started to come off in sheets in less then a year. Don't think I would use again.

I find the texture is better, the more coats you apply.

If I recall the directions correctly, you are supposed to use at least 3 coats with a fairly short wait between them. I think there is an oil mixed in with the paint that makes if separate into plates and if the coat dries too much/too fast the plates don't' form correctly. I have used both the aerosol and the brush on with fairly good results.

Brush on works best and most consistent for me.  The spray has to go on pretty thick

I brush it on, seems to "hammer" more if you keep it well mixed.

/got 'nothin...

So, seems maybe my problem was too light of coats compound by not enough mixing. Maybe. 

How uniform of a finish are yall getting?

I’ve used a lot of this stuff in both black and silver, and I love it. 

 The only time I had an issue was when I used primer first.

Don’t use primer. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

The first time I used it years ago, it was the green & on a bicycle frame. It looked great - exactly like you'd see on a vice, etc. The second time was this spring on the DSM, spraying the intake plumbing silver. There wasn't as much "hammered" look to it, but it's consistent. 

I dont remember having any issues using the hammered stuff, but i remember when i tried to use wrinkle paint it was very sensitive to heat and the part needed to be fairly warm. Are you spraying it on cold surfaces?

Just like hookers, toss the can in hot water to raise the internal pressure before you use it. 

There used to be a paint called Hammerite.  It was awesome stuff, but now that the big box stores sell Rustoleum, you can't find it any more.  Last time I bought it was at an Ace Hardware.  For the record, I think the hammered Rustoleum is crap, but the regular Rustoleum in a can is pretty good.  I use the smoke gray on all of my cage and race car interiors.  Easy to remove with a wire wheel, and easy to touch up afdter you have to do some welding.

I find that the Rustoleum Hammer paint in the can that you brush on works better than the spray. I think it's because the spray paint has to be thinner to spray and you do need to apply this paint on  in heavy coats to get the best "hammer" effect. With a spray can you can end up with multiple runs in the paint trying to get that heavy layer.

 My friend  and I just a few weeks ago painted the whole interior of his car just because it was brown and the exterior color had been changed to gray met. so we used gray hammer inside.  A single heavy coat was all it needed and we are happy with the hammer look.

Vigo (Forum Supporter) said:

I dont remember having any issues using the hammered stuff, but i remember when i tried to use wrinkle paint it was very sensitive to heat and the part needed to be fairly warm. Are you spraying it on cold surfaces?

Back (way back) when I sprayed production at a tool company, we used to put the machinist's levels under a bank of heat lamps right after we sprayed them with black wrinkle paint.  I assume the heat was pretty much essential for the finish to wrinkle.

We also used a hammertone finish on some extruded levels.  As I recall, it was a two-part finish.  A silver base coat, then a blue-grey topcoat that would dry to a hammered finish.