More Playing With Fire

[kerravonsen]

I couldn't resist doing more of this heat-treating stuff, so I took out some of my copper and bronze tags, and stuck them in the flames.



Now I find that the thing which takes most time is polishing them with Renaissance Wax afterwards. I tried to speed it up by using my Dremel, but it didn't seem to do as good a job as doing it by hand. 8-( My index fingers are sore.

Comments

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Lots of interesting effects! Some look aged.

Is there anything else you can coat them with, using a brush, say?

[kerravonsen]

Some look aged.

Yep. Aging is just oxidisation done more slowly.

The fancy colours -- assuming that the explanation for Titanium applies to the other metals as well -- are due to (whatever-metal)-oxide refracting & reflecting different wavelengths of light depending on how thick the layer of oxide is. What I suspect is that with Titanium (and Niobium) it is easier and more foolproof to achieve this effect(*), while with Stainless Steel, it isn't as reliable and the oxide layer needs to be very thin, otherwise you just get standard rust, and with the copper and bronze, there are fewer colours produced. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that Titanium, Niobium and Steel are silvery metals, so the underlying metal colour doesn't influence the refracted colours so much. Hmmm.

(*) With Titanium and Niobium, there are actually two methods to achieve the oxidation: one is heat, which is what I've tried, and the other more frequently mentioned one is anodization, which is to make the item-to-be-decorated the Anode in an electric circuit, inside a conducting bath of water (plus something dissolved in the water), with the cathode at the other end. This is attractive to many people, because the process is more controllable, since each voltage (from about 30 volts to 120 volts) gives a different colour.
But I tried the heat method first because it was something I already had the equipment for.

Is there anything else you can coat them with, using a brush, say?

There are, but the impression I have from various online discussions about how to protect metals from tarnish, is that coatings like laquers tend to peel off or wear unevenly (especially in chainmaille), and that for long-term preservation, Renaissance Wax is the most reliable. It's used by museums to protect many different kinds of things; while it was originally created as a furniture polish, they found it works well on things as diverse as paintings and suits of armour.

While I have, in the past, used transparent embossing powder to protect some of my stamped copper pendants, I don't know how robust it is. It might scrape off with a fingernail, like nail polish does. 8-(

Another thing which is recommended for preservation is doming epoxy resin, but that's messy and stinky and fiddly and usually toxic. And I don't know where to purchase any, since my usual craft stores have other kinds of epoxy resin, not this kind.

At least Renaissance Wax is non-toxic and straightforward in application: wipe on a thin layer, and then polish with a soft cloth. It's just that with pieces so small, they aren't that easy to polish while making sure one doesn't touch them with one's bare greasy fingers.

I might consider a spray-on laquer (the Fine Art kind that is used to do things like fix charcoal drawings) but it is also fussy, since I would need to lay out newspaper and do it in the garage... which means I would never get around to doing it. But it is something that might be feasible for pendants, even if it wouldn't be feasible for chainmaille, since I wouldn't have to worry about things sticking together. I'd have to do it in two passes, though; spray one side, let it dry, then do the other side. But at least it wouldn't make my fingers sore.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The wax certainly sounds like the best option, and all methods seem labour-intensive, but sore fingers are no fun. Maybe someone who uses the wax has come up with a better option for small items like scales.