Since the purpose for this series of articles is to document the making of an acanthus leaf, I am not going to go into great detail over the finishing processes I used on the acanthus leaf. There are many ways to finish non ferrous metals and these should be topics of their own.

However, I will highlight some of the things which can prevent a good finish from being achieved. Since the final appearance of my acanthus leaves will be that of an antique finish, I used a pre-mixed blackening solution over the entire surface of the leaf. Before I applied this solution, the piece had to be absolutely cleaned from oil residues.

There are many chemicals which will not only remove the oils, but can also remove the tight adhering scale which is produced from the annealing process. There is a relatively safe hydrogen peroxide formula which Bill Seeley has written about, but since I was not concerned over the oxides, I opted to simply clean the piece with standard store bought ammonia. The surfaces were scrubbed with the ammonia and then cleaned again with soapy water. They were then dried and the pre-mixed antiqueing solution was applied liberally to both surfaces.

After the solution had set for awhile, it was rinsed with cold water and allowed to air dry. The patina created a brown to black finish over the entire surface of the acanthus leaf that was later removed by the polishing operation performed on the front of the leaf.

This operation is accomplished by using White Diamond Tripoli on a high speed buffing wheel. Since the leaf has many curves and indentations, the buffing action only affects the high spots of the leaf. This creates a polished "old world" look to the acanthus leaf and brings elegance to the overall design of the center island pot rack.

Sometimes, the only way to learn how to do something in metalwork is by actually making it along with all the associated tooling. I feel that this has been a great educational journey which has taken me several weeks to complete. This precious time was not figured into the budget for the project, but was necessary for maintaining a high standard of craftsmanship in my metalwork. The alternative was to buy a mass produced stamped leaf which has no character. I just cannot force myself to do that! I may have lost some billable hours, but I gained much more in what I believe is true wealth.