![\"Pantia](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.larping.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IMG_20200116_173501967-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>I should note that I used a lemon scented bargain ammonia and apple cider vinegar.\u00a0 Would there be different results?\u00a0 Don’t know but worth more experimentation later on.\u00a0 Oh, and just for clarification sake, the vinegar coatings are put in wet.<\/p>\n
Each piece I used a green scrubby to remove whatever finish\/scratch it up a bit on one side of the test piece (26 gauge in both cases) and the lettering is on an unaltered side used for marking the pieces (AV=Ammonia Vinegar).\u00a0 I sealed it and walked away for 18 hours.\u00a0 These are the results<\/p>\n As you can see, the non treated had almost no effect save at the very bottom where it was in contact with the container’s bottom.\u00a0 Not sure for the reason of this.\u00a0 A quick Google search states that in high humidity areas, ammonia vapors can condense and become heavier than air so maybe with the addition of the vinegar it settled and corroded it more?\u00a0\u00a0 There was a YouTube video where someone put in a large, dry copper piece above ammonia for 24 hours and it came out basically black.\u00a0 So I don’t know what that was about but this was my result after 18 hours.\u00a0 And the back sides looked like this<\/p>\n It would seem that the vinegar ran a lot more on these pieces but still an interesting pattern and color came out.\u00a0 I assume longer exposure will deepen the effects.<\/p>\n Second Test<\/p>\n I wanted to try a couple of tricks that were shown in other videos.\u00a0 I did the most often suggested method of vinegar with sprinkled salt on the surface.\u00a0 I also tried just spritzing a piece of brass with water that came out with a very black look to it with the water spots remaining more brass.\u00a0 And there’s a texturing technique using wood shavings (such as for small rodent bedding) that are dampened\/soaked with ammonia and the vinegar covered pieces are given a quick shake in the bag to cover them with the shavings.\u00a0 I did not have such stuff on hand and was too lazy\/cheap to go out and buy them so I used some hay I had left over from my rabbit and cut it up into smaller pieces.\u00a0 So here’s my setup for the second test<\/p>\n I wasn’t really pleased with the results after 18 hours.\u00a0 There was no result on the spritzed piece and the salted pieces weren’t as vibrant as the videos showed so I did some quick changes.<\/p>\n I pulled all the pieces out and poured a thin layer of ammonia into the container’s bottom.\u00a0 I then submerged the spritzed piece into it just to see what would happen.\u00a0 I then had a container that fit within the main container so I put the salted pieces into that, put the container on top of the brass under the ammonia then, remembering a blacksmithing friend wanted to try something tomorrow, put a piece of 20 gauge brass across the top of the inner container that I coated with vinegar.\u00a0 Sealed it all back up for 6 hours and this was the result<\/p>\n There wasn’t a lot of difference in the change of color over those six hours for the salted pieces and the submerged piece didn’t change at all.\u00a0 How could it if it needs to oxidize – duh.\u00a0 And I think my salt pieces didn’t have the same vibrance as the other pieces as I just used regular table salt.\u00a0 I think that the larger the grain, the more color you get.\u00a0 My belief (unresearched) is that the salt helps to ‘pool’ the vapors while leaving the piece exposed for oxidation.<\/p>\n The pattern of the hay was intriguing though and I figure that using other medium to hold the ammonia in place might be interesting.\u00a0 I saw someone use a piece of paper towel and the dappling effect the texture had on it was intriguing.\u00a0 The piece I laid over the top however…<\/p>\n So I imagine\/hypothesize that with the positioning, the concentration of the vapors coming up over the lip of the inner cup caused the much deeper reactions to the metal.\u00a0 The piece was set back a bit further with the other pieces helping to support it so that the edges of the very dark blue on the metal corresponded with the edge of the cup.\u00a0 Just that when I opened the container, the piece fell into the cup so I couldn’t get it back in place.<\/p>\n The fact that there was zero reaction underneath it also might tell me why there wasn’t any major change to the other pieces over those six hours as the ammonia vapors probably didn’t head down too far into the cup (could be wrong of course).\u00a0 This will be something interesting to try out – different platform shapes at different heights from the ammonia.<\/p>\n I am continuing one last experiment.\u00a0 I wanted to see if I could layer the vinegar back onto the first ammonia and vinegar piece (and IMO, the best results I got).\u00a0 But what do you think happens when you put a mild acidic compound that people use for cleaning onto tarnished metal?<\/p>\n Yup.<\/p>\n I put it back into the ammonia chamber for another overnight bath but I believe that there wont’ be a pronounced change.\u00a0 I’ll come back here and post the photo of it but I really got the answer to which type of process I want to go with.<\/p>\n As a final wrapup – this was fun to see what happened playing around and experimenting.\u00a0 It is something I suggest everyone does with their processes.\u00a0 Try different techniques, scour YouTube and as always, do it safely.\u00a0 No one mentioned what of reaction\/gas is produced in this process. \u00a0 However, having a rather quirky chemistry teacher in High School, he had a mantra he used to chant.\u00a0 “An acid plus a base equals a salt and a water”.\u00a0 Still though, I wore gloves and a high quality filtration mask as well as safety glasses just in case.<\/p>\n In addition – when I say in this article that something could be looked into more or further experimentation could be interesting – I’m not saying I’m going to do it.\u00a0 I’ve already done my experimentation to find the result I need.\u00a0 But feel free to take what I gleaned from this process and move forward yourself.<\/p>\n Oh, and one last note.\u00a0 All of these patinas will rub off somewhat easily (ever have a green finger from a copper or brass ring?).\u00a0 So using a couple coats of a clear sealer when all is dry is highly recommended.\u00a0 One individual used a wood polishing wax on his darkened piece of copper that not only helped to seal it but gave it a nice, buffed glow to it – like a well worn handle.<\/p>\n Have fun and always be creative.<\/p>\n Addendum:<\/p>\n I thought I’d check in on the pieces after the 30 minutes it took me to write this piece.\u00a0 Here are the results.<\/p>\n Left to right is the piece I repainted with vinegar and had removed most of the patina.\u00a0 It looks like the original patina is working as a block to the new stuff but will need more than half an hour to find that out.\u00a0 The 20 gauge piece that sat on top of the inner cup now dried and I LOVE that color.\u00a0 The two right pieces were the ones with salt I sprinkled on them.\u00a0 But this time, instead of dusting them like I would french fries,\u00a0 I lightly pinched only a few grains onto the surface after the initial vinegar coating.<\/p>\n So once again, I should learn not to rush things.\u00a0 I have a feeling that if I had let the salted ones thoroughly dry (the salt was still a bit ‘wet’ when I brushed it off) it would have been better.\u00a0 The salted ones and the rebrushed piece are back into the ammonia chamber.\u00a0 The ‘inner cup’ piece my blacksmith friend will be seeing if he can ‘hammer’ the pantina into the brass permanently.\u00a0 Apparently there’s a technique to do this with rusted metal where pounding the rust into the metal actually creates a rust resistant surface and a very interestingly ‘reddish’ armor after it’s been polished.\u00a0 Who knew?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Patina Practice I have an idea for a shoulder piece in a Post Apoc game I attend called Dystopia Rising (Northern California). Most of what I see though is rusted metal\/steel and I decided that as we have a slight nautical theme to our game, it would be nice to make it out of brass … Continue reading Patina Practice<\/span> <\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>