Re: ageing brass

Mar 01, 2005 1 Replies


How


>do I quickly age the new bits to match the old which are dull/tarnished but
>not covered in verdigris?

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The usual best (ie easiest) is the ammonia and sawdust recipe.


A slightly better colour is the copper sulphate and zinc chloride (killed spirits) one. Don't use killed spirits alone, and certainly not with bronze rather than brass. It patinates well enough, but it doesn't stop ! There's a risk of "bronze disease" (galloping regenerating chloride corrosion) which is a bugger of a job to stop, if it has got started.


Watch out for commercial patina solutions - most are deliberately _very_ dark. Always try them first, ideally on a similar composition of alloy.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. On balance I think I'll try the ammonia method as I have the ingredients so its cheap. Since, as I said, there is no verdigris I'm wondering whether these parts were oily and have been aged simply by the breakdown of the oil. Just for fun I'll try a sample dip in used sump oil to see what effect the acids and sulphur contaminants have. regards Roland

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