1989Pre 

That's good advice. I'm really not very impulsive. I just thought I'd take my show-piece (which has been just wall-art)
on a club ride.

LesterOfPuppets

smd4

4 speed? That’s a little before my time.

Camilo

Find some of this - it will make your chain black in short order and also is supposed to be a good lube.

GRAPHENlube World's Best Wax Lubricant Period. (absoluteblack.cc)

Or just ride your bike with normal chain lube, it will get dirty and black.

If your chain were pristine clean, you could probably spray paint it and it would look good for a short time. It would have to be totally pristine though.

SurferRosa

If your local shop only has silver or gold chains, maybe that's a ... uh ... jewelry store?

jccaclimber

Snarky replies aside, stripping to clean bare metal and soaking in warm citric or phosphoric acid will probably give you a dull dark gray.
Proper black might involve calling other shops.
The fastest might be a local co-op with a used chain. Overnight shipping from an online source comes to mind as well.

dedhed

​​​​​​https://shop.mccormick.com/products/...seasoning-3-oz

Litespud

put wet lube on it and ride it for ~10 miles. It’ll look plenty black

SurferRosa

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facepalm

jccaclimber

It’s the active ingredient in many of the rust removers at the hardware store and will matte/darken the metal.
Sure, it’ll start hydrogen embrittlement if you leave it in too long. I suppose it is expecting too much that the OP is going to research the downsides to these options.

smd4

There are plenty of home gun bluing concoctions on the market that may do the job, if it's really that important and urgent. I would think it's easier, not to mention smarter and cheaper, just to buy the right chain. Certainly anything would be better than allowing one's chain to get so dirty and oily that it becomes black.

Iride01 

Well it is Wednesday. Curious what action you took with the chain to get you riding this bike.

SurferRosa

Using phosphoric acid on a new chain deserves the <facepalm>.

BCRider

The "silver" chains I've had were clearly nickel or similarly plated. So you would need to remove the plating first before using a cold blue to blacken the links. Consider that it would also blacken the rollers too. And the ends of the pins. So it would be ALL black. Likely not what you want. And also multiple chemical baths at least one which I believe would be nitric acid to remove the plating if it is in fact nickel. Or perhaps electrically removing it with a different bath and power supply. But that is likely to be a spoty sort of deal since the chain might not be equally conductive along the whole length depending on a few things.

All in all the others are giving you the best solution. Just shop and buy the chain color you want to start. If you need a chain for the weekend then buy the silver one and replace it later. Or drive to the next LBS in the next town or district.

smd4

Personally, I avoid black chains like the plague. Full silver for me, please!

1989Pre 

Did they have silver chains in 1948?

1989Pre 

This all makes sense. I should have thought about the plating. I'll just take another bike until I can buy a proper Renold or Perry.

smd4

It's your bike--you tell me. I have no idea.

_ForceD_

I guess it’s past the date you needed it by, but next time something like this gun barrel bluing might work.

https://www.bluewonderguncare.com/pr...-gun-black-kit

Dan

M Rose

after deplating the nickel finish on the chain.