Summary for aging brass to uniform dark finish Discussion
The focus keyphrase, aging brass to uniform dark finish, comes up because Brian Collins wants his antique brass and iron bed to develop a flat brown, bronze, olive-drab look after the lacquer was stripped, but the brass is darkening unevenly from handling and movement. He tried a commercial brass darkening solution by rubbing it on with a cloth, but it had little effect because the product’s directions call for submerging the part. The thread excerpt does not include Barry Feinman’s actual solution, so the page mainly establishes the problem: brass that ages inconsistently in use and a darkening product that may not work well when applied by wiping instead of immersion. The practical takeaway is that the desired uniform finish is not being achieved with the method tried, and the missing full answer would be needed to know the recommended workaround.
I have an antique brass and Iron bed … The brass was lacquered and about 10 years ago, I chemically stripped off the clear lacquer. The brass is darkening at different rates in different areas, mostly because the bed is in regular use and every time the bed gets moved or someone touches it … it eventually gets some kind of a spot or stain in that area. I bought a commercial brass darkening solution
⇦ on
or
Amazon [affil link] and I tried wetting a cloth and rubbing it on … it did nothing … the instructions call for actually submerging the part to be aged … which is not practical. Any suggestions? I would like the bed to have that uniform flat Brown, bronze, olive drab look. Is there any way to accomplish this?
Brian Collins
– Austin, Texas
2006
Vintage Brass Beds & Parts on eBay [affil link]
? Curious as to what commercial product you used. Birchwood Casey makes several products to get the finish you want. Maybe your surface was not prep properly. I’ll be glad to discuss this with you. Contact me at the below website. Good luck
Barry Feinman – Chief Restoration Officer
BarrysRestoreItAll
Carlsbad, California
2006