If you let that dull, misty appearance of your brass item sit for too long, it will eventually thicken up until removing it to reveal the shiny surface underneath becomes almost impossible. Tarnish in copper normally turns into a layer of copper dioxide almost immediately after being exposed to air. Over time, this copper dioxide further corrodes and gives up more oxygen to form copper oxide. Thankfully, tarnish is very easy to clean up. You can polish and bring them back to their shiny selves.
Be it a small item like a faucet valve or a large one like a stairway railing trim, you can polish it as effectively as you would your shoes. Apart from knowing what causes tarnish on brass, here are a few tips that can help you do a great job polishing your brasses. That is simply to look for items that are made from high-quality brass. You have to understand that brass products come in different qualities because they are made by different manufacturers. In case you are looking for brass supplies for construction or craft, make sure that the supplies you will purchase come from any of the established brass suppliers in North America like Rotax Metals.
This way you can be sure that your materials are manufactured in the best foundry and had passed all necessary quality tests before being distributed to local markets.
Brass items that are un-lacquered will in most cases specifically mention that. They are less commonly available, and also typically have a higher price tag. If you are looking for raw brass, you should specifically ask for that in your search. Thank you for this really helpful post!
I have a question — if you buy unlacquered brass bathroom fixtures, is it possible to lacquer them at a later date? Asking because we are renovating an old mansion house to turn it into a hotel, and I love the raw natural look but it might prove easier for maintenance to have lacquered fixtures.
The short answer is yes, you can later lacquer your raw brass. However, if it were me, I would keep the lovely raw brass of your traditional mansion AS IS, and embrace the layered patina it develops over time.
I would specifically NOT polish it. The beauty and sought after look of raw brass is indeed the natural aged look — that is very hard to imitate. Un-lacquered brass is hard to find these days, and more expensive than lacquered brass. I hope I can convince you to allow your raw brass to naturally age, and embrace the elegant character it will show in time. Hi, thanks so much for the article. However only some of the fixtures I need are available unlaquered.
Have you ever mixed lacquered and unlaquered brass? And do you know if the tone of brass changes much between suppliers or stays fairly consistent? Any advice is much appreciated! Rather than mixing raw with another kind of brass, I would definitely rather add a second metal, like matte black. Those two work well together, and it will cause your beautiful raw brass to stand out.
Also, antique brass can vary quite a bit between different manufacturers. Hope that helps, all best with your project! I also have a q. Then aging brass techniques are exactly what you need!
Brass attracts us with its beautiful looks, durability, and utility. It can be used almost everywhere starting from plumbing items and ending with decorations and kitchen utensils. You probably wondered how the natural aging of brass is going on and how long it takes for brass to turn to get that noble patina. To begin with, brass is an alloy of such metals as nickel and copper.
It is hard, corrosion-resistant and has antimicrobial properties, in addition, brass is a good heat and electricity conductor which makes items made of this metal irreplaceable in any kitchen. Nevertheless, despite all of these positive qualities, brass items tend to tarnish after some time has passed, especially if they were actively used. As it was already mentioned above, brass contains copper which starts to tarnish after being exposed to the outside impact. For example, salt makes brass darken much faster.
Other factors that lead to aging brass include chemicals from the tap and rainwater, as well as the air and bacteria from our hands and food. The speed of aging of the brass depends on several issues. One is what elements and chemicals the brass item is affected with. If brass is kept outdoor and it is exposed to wind and rain, it will tarnish much faster than an indoor item that is regularly polished and wiped.
The second issue is how often those brass items are taken care of. The more often you wipe and polish your brass the longer it will keep its shiny look. Of course, unless you love that natural patina on brass!
It may be quite difficult to tell the difference between them only by their appearance as clean brass has shiny and golden-brown color whilst copper is more like pink-brown or brown, and the bronze is of dark-brown color.
The only trustworthy way to figure out what metal you are dealing with is to use a magnet.
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