How to get gold bathroom faucets to darken to a bronze-like finish?

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I'm a home hobbyist and have noticed a door handle, on the exterior, has become a rather nice dark bronze finish while the interior has remained gold plated. Some interior door hinges also look to have 'bronzed' with age.

I'm doing some work on my bathroom and have bronze light switches and towel bars. The sink fixtures are a more gleaming gold plating. To be fair, the quality of the faucet is probably much higher than the rather inexpensive looking door handles, but it got me thinking... how could I get the same finish on the gold sink fixtures?

I've read on another website that jewelry makers spray windex (ammonia) on shiny gold to darken it but this hasn't had much effect on the Moen or American Standard faucets. Liver Of Sulphur [linked by editor to product info at MisterArt] and ferrous nitrate have been suggested for darkening brass. Might this work for my use? Any other suggestions?

Many thanks in advance for humoring my question. I appreciate your expertise.

Jay Deceder
hobbyist - Royersford, PA, USA

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Hi, Jay. Here's the thing: the procedures you have described are used to darken gold in the one case and brass in the other case -- but you probably have neither.

The finish on the Moen is probably their "lifetime" finish, which is a physical vapor deposition process for applying titanium nitride, zirconium nitride or something similar. Although it has the general color of gold or brass there is no gold or brass there.

I am not familiar with the American Standard finish, but it may also be a PVD process, or it could be an electrophoretically applied lacquer on top of gold or brass plating, or it might be a gold tinted lacquer on top of a white plating like nickel.

These finishes are designed to last a lifetime without darkening, so I doubt that Windex or other common chemicals will significantly darken them. I think you are better off trying to spec the darker finish you want than trying to darken a too-light one.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey