I need to blacken some stainless steel parts and was told that heating them up to around 600 degrees C would do the trick, but half a canister of mapp gas later I'm convinced that's a load of crap.

I found some chemical coating kits for sale on the internet but I'm very sure that I could get the components locally for much cheaper and faster than I could on the net. What would be a good combination of chemicals that would allow me to do this?

I've found a few mixes on the yahoo answers forums, but before I go spending money on things and find out that they don't work, I'd rather ask the experts  here and get a surefire recipe the first time out.

thanks guys