Trout HeadThree Trout: Three Cutthroat Trout 21" x 8" x 2.5" forged and fabricated mild steel with overlaid copper and stainless steel. Inlaid copper, brass and other alloys. I recently tweaked my process and upgraded some tools. I am now officially sold on 2” prep pads for my die grinder. I am looking to go 3”. I finally got a 3” pneumatic cutoff wheel. I like it for grinding and shaping ( haven’t really cut through anything with it yet). All of this air is making my compressor feel small.

I decided to get more serious about patinas (I guess they work better when you clean the surface). I got out my book; Contemporary Patination by Ronald D. Young and some Ferric Nitrate that I had purchased from the Science Company (online).

The center fish is done with my previous techniques (heat and a brass brush). The top and bottom fish have a Ferric Nitrate patina added. I was pleasantly surprised with how the Ferric Nitrate turned the mild steel dark with heat and gave some hints of rust red. I am pleased at my first attempt of turning the copper red and will continue the process, but there is plenty of room for improvement. I washed the pieces in soap in water and lifted off a lot of color. I still like using the brass brush on hot steel to blend the steel into the brass and copper.

I bought some new buffing pads for my die grinder (the last ones I caught on fire… cloth, wax, and grinding sparks… they smoldered away like steel wool on fire.) I finally ran out of Organic Carnauba wax (10# of chips bought over the web), these pieces have Tree Wax on them.