Hi, I’m making a sword in Blender, and I want most of it to have a metallic surface, except the black hilt, which I want to look like leather. What can I do besides boosting the Ref (reflection) to make it look more metallic?
Thanks!
Try adding a bump map texture to give it some surface defects, and a different texture set to specular to simulate that forged look.
Get some reference photos and pay close attention to the shape of the highlights. 
I’m confused. In the subject you mentioned textures, but in the question itself you mentioned the Ref setting which has nothing to do with textures.
Oh well, who cares. In addition to the texturing techniques suggested by charding, use raytraced reflections to make it reflect stuff like a mirror. It’s different from the Ref setting. In the Materials settings, turn on RayMirror. Then increase the RayMir slider, but don’t make it 1 unless you want your sword to become a perfectly polished mirror. Play with the Fresnel slider if you want the reflectivity to change according to the angle at which the sword is viewed.
Really hope what I said was relevant… :-?
Thanks, that sounds like it will work. Sorry, I’m really a newbie and I got confused with the difference between textures and materials. I guess I meant materials. I really don’t know how to do anything except change the color. :-? But I’ll try that with the raytracing. Do I have to have other objects around for it to relflect? I guess that would make sense.
Hmmm…
Yes, you’ll need to make a better background than your last pic to make nice reflections. Otherwise the blade will turn out having nothing but a slight blue tint ('cause it’s reflecting the blue background).