'Antiquing'

Suggestions welcome as to how to best 'antique' some new brass items, probably along the lines of a 'tumble box' containing sand/stone etc, preferably turned using my small lathe or even bench drill. Has anyone come up with a simple method!? Thanks!

Flog it with chain then leave it on the beach for a week

If you lightly coat the brass in a smidgeon of oil, you can create a "burnished" sort of look with strange ripples of coppery colours running through it by heating it up with a torch.

You could just leave it to change to a more darker golden color over time, doesn't take that long really, a few months at best. 

You may also be unaware that there are many, many different kinds of brass going around, with differing colours, like abyssinian gold or german silver? 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 12/08/2016 08:01:48

See this method Here

Mike

Sounds like you are wanting to get a "worn" look rather than just discoloured.

You can make a simple tumbler from a short length of 110mm soil pipe with an access cap glued onto each end. on the drive end you can just drill for a bolt, secure with an nut externally and hold the bolt in the chuck. Tailstock will support the other end if you put a ctr hole in the head of the bolt and nut on the inside.

Place parts into tumbler with some abrasive, coarse sharp sand will do with a few bits of broken brick. Then simply leave it slowly rotating in the lathe. You want it slow enough so the contents tumble and are not flung against the sides of the tube never to move again.

This will leave a bright finish, quick dip in ammonia or longer dip in urine will give a patina. You can also fume it with the ammonia - put a dish of ammonia next to the parts and then cover with a larger container and the fumes will do the job

Edited By JasonB on 12/08/2016 08:08:51

Keep them in your pockets for a couple of weeks.

:0)

Depending on what the mystery objects are and what exact antique finish you want, you might just be able to rub them with sandpaper and files etc to get wear patterns on them, then rub with salt water and leave to sit for a few days.

Welcome Peter,

I would suggest starting by using a 'blacking solution' of some sort - lots of recipes/sources on the web.

Then allow them to tumble with a gentle abrasive like walnut shell.

This will create the look of old, worn metal, without the blacking it will come out looking brighter and newer than it went in!

Neil

Have a look at Axminster tools - they list a variety of fancy antiquing finishes for brass, wood, etc.

For bronze statues, one traditional method is to put the statue in the orangery around Easter time, and ask the maid to rub it all over with olive oil* each morning and evening. You should see a deep brown patina developing by about Christmas.

*I expect that the oil, like the maid, had to be extra virgin ...

There are also recipes (which do not rely on you living on a country estate) in older editions of the Machinery's Handbook.

Regards, Tim

Firstly, you need to differentiate between 'patination' and 'surface finish'...ie, the former is about colour or oxidation and the later is about mechanical texture or smoothness of surface.....you seem a little confused!

Most 'out of the bottle' antiquing compounds are not usually subtle in action and tend to look like what they are.

Ron Rose, fantastic pro clockmaker, author and supremo of S. London BHI told me that when he w s a young clock maker it was his job to make replacement parts for antique clocks that were brought in for repair and restoration.......He would make the part and then suspend it from the window hinge of his third story workshop so that the fumes from the traffic in the high street below would tarnish and patinate the brass. Each week he would bring in the part and compare with the rest of the clock...if not the right depth of colour he would simply hang it out for another week or so.

Tim, reading your post is like an excerpt from a workshop instructable with an erotic twist haha. I dare say you'd be making a mint with hints like that. (It may not have worked out like the demonstration but damn i enjoyed reading about it!)

Michael W

Put "Colouring Brass" in the search for window.

Ian S C

From a PM I had from Peter, it would seem I was correct that he wants to make the brass look Worn not just change the colour that was why he asked about tumbling. Just thought I would save any others barking up the wrong tree.