Posted by bruce paul fink on May 15, 1999 at 06:44:45:

In Reply to: Re: aging brass posted by Russ Buckley on May 14, 1999 at 08:47:24:

Is this to be kept as a Really Restored

OR as a Simulated Restored.

To be truly accurate in any patina over time you should:

First find out what kind of brass alloy it was and use that. Each different alloy will age progress in it's own directions and a true match demands that.

It is very likely that whatever the current patina is now it was acquired via just time and the salts of the air where it was used. This means a little history of the travels of it is in order.

Not to sound like going overboard, was this chest kept on the open seas (salty air) or country inland or an industrial and more dirty settlement, was the surrounding wood keep oiled or waxed or varnished or ?, etc...

ALSO you may just get to the library and find a good book on patina chemicals and side by side try to match the actual piece with the colored photos and proceed with their recommendations...

OR you could remove the patina from the original piece and then do the two again side by side in the same mix...

OR just fudge it by a complete clean and polish and reclean and maybe distressed surface (like tumble it with some nails or small rocks for awhile) and reclean before a little heat and a bath of some Cupric Nitrate and then wash and a bath of heated Ferric Nitrate and if not responding maybe a very mild darkening with Potash Sulfurated (Liver of Sulfur... careful here, very potent a pinch in water will be plenty) and then some more cupric nitrate.. and then???

The real problem here... is by describing it as a 'greenish brown' it tells us nothing about the real tone of green or depths of brown or base material in lightness or darkness of elements so you really have to go to the photo comparisons and then play with it. Time is also one of the elements so use heat to accelerate that variable.

If you approach this as a quickie / accurate duplication it may be very frustrating as these are not paints and keep changing some with the time and humidity of the surrounds. (So might want to hit the other older part with this also so they then progress together again).

If you tackle this with the creative marvel than many artists do as the forces of nature and this physical plane of cause and effect enables us to do... it can be a real joy.

And then on the seventh day you can rest.

bpfink

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