How to age brass?

admin

I am repairing a one hundred year old "Bommer" double spring hinge. This is a massive, swinging door type hinge on a set of double doors in the Library in town. I have it all disassembled, cleaned, and mostly straightened out. I will be tig welding it back together with some silicone bronze rod, after welding, a bit of grinding will be required, here is the problem.  The cleaned up brass is going to look butt ugly on this old hinge.  Does anyone have any simple ideas or techniques for aging or darkening the brass? Any help would be appreciated. When it is all done I will post a few pics of the repair process.Just my  opinion, not from a book, just from the road.Howes Welding Inc.www.howesweldinginc.com
Reply:Heating brass-bottomed pots on a stove darkens them.  This might work without too much risk to the hinge itself or the repair.  Just a thought.Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:To age brass, let it get old.   smithboy, most of the cookware has a -copper- bottom and not a brass bottom.OK, more seriously now, the silicon bronze filler -may- take a different hue even when aged because of the silicon in your bronze filler.  Are you trying to make the repair unnoticeable or just not blatant?  You could do a minor clean and polish on the entire hinge to blend in your repair work and spiff up the hinge overall.To age brass, you are trying to accelerate the natural oxidation of the metal.  Judiciously applied heat, from a torch or other flame, can be used.  Heat the item with a flame until hot (don't melt it with a pinpoint O-A or other welding/brazing flame, just heat it), let cool, repeat and repeat and repeat.Another way to accelerate the aging and oxidation and surface corrosion is to apply chemicals.  Mild acid like vinegar or solutions of household ammonia can be used to corrode the brass.  See http://www.whitechapel-ltd.com/tech/antique_brass.shtmlBefore using the silicon bronze filler on the hinges, I'd do a test-aging on the filler to see if it even looks like it will be close in color and patina to the main hinge metal.  Yes, after welding the filler and the main metal will blend in the weld pool and may make a different alloy blend than either the base metal or the plain filler rod.  If you can determine a little better what type of brass you are dealing with and then try to get your filler close to that you will minimize the alloying differences and possible patina differences as well.Maybe a history buff or someone in the library would know or could research the likely brass type used in the hinges.BTW, since this is for a library, why didn't you just ask one of the librarians to research the question of "how to age brass"?     Which is what I typed into google to find the above web-link.
Reply:A saltwater bath will generally turn yellow brass a tarnished coppery dull red color,or just plain green if it sits too long,or you don't polish off the corrosion. Bleach can be used to blacken brass or copper.
Reply:There's always powdercoating...If you don't have the time to do it right, then you definitely don't have the time to do it over.
Reply:Or you could take both of them and make them all shiney and new.. ...zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.