Veerdin
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Penniless Arisocrat
Posts: 78
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Post by Veerdin on Mar 16, 2018 10:08:16 GMT
I recently purchased myself a one handed arming sword to use during HEMA. It's a really cheap, simple and durable design, a dedicated "beater", as the site I bought it from says says. I'll likely post a review of it here later on, but in the mean time, I wanted to see if I could modify it a bit:
The cross guard and pommel are made of brass, and while they're great quality, I'm not really a fan of gold coloured metals. I'd like to see if there's any sort of treatments I can apply to the metal in order to turn it more grey/silvery and give it an "old steel" sort of appearance. I looked online, and while there are plenty of tutorials on how to make steel look like brass, or how to age brass to a darker finish, the only thing I could find about making brass look steely was to use paint. And seeing as this is going to be used as a heavy sparring weapon, I don't think paint is a great idea.
So, what are my options? As far as I'm aware, the fittings are solid brass and not another metal with a brass finish. So I'd need something I can apply to the metal to make it look greyer and possibly darker? Currently the metal has a basic polish job done on it and that's about it. Cheap and simple, like I said.
Thanks!
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stormmaster
Member
I like viking/migration era swords
Posts: 7,647
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Post by stormmaster on Mar 17, 2018 5:44:06 GMT
im just thinking some kinda metal paint or something? or some kinda way to patina it with heat
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Mar 17, 2018 6:33:48 GMT
Perhaps chemical or electroplating with silver.
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Uhlan
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Posts: 3,121
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Post by Uhlan on Mar 17, 2018 8:04:20 GMT
Try Holland Hallmark. Brands like it are sold on Ebay as ,,silver plater''. Clean the brass with aceton or alcohol and rub the silver on. This should work, but the layer will be very thin and it only works when there is enough copper in the object. Sometimes brass is not what you think it is. These days they mix all kinds of metals that only look brassy. If you want a thicker layer try ,, brush plating ''. I use this Hallmark stuff with my brush plating set up and the results are much better. For plating anything over anything look at the three videos here:
This video no.1 In the sidebar you see the others. It really works. You can plate iron on brass or copper etc, but it is rather involved. For starters I'd advise you to try Holland Hallmark or another silver plater compound from Ebay. If you like the idea, be sure to wear plastic gloves or else you wind up with purple fingers. You could patinate the brass too. You'll get the antique look. Google ,,antique patina on brass''. An easy one is to gass it in ammonia fumes. It will come out dark brown and if you wait long enough it will look like something that was dug up from some archaeological site. Again, if the object only looks like brass, there is no guarantee all of this will work. On MyArmoury there was this patina thread. Maybe it is still up. Good explanation of how it works. Easy really.
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Veerdin
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Penniless Arisocrat
Posts: 78
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Post by Veerdin on Mar 17, 2018 10:37:36 GMT
Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I'm doubtful paint will work how I want as I intend to use this weapon for sparring. But I hadn't thought of plating it with silver. Didn't know there were commercially available plating agents you could buy! But I suppose that shouldn't really surprise me at this point.
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Post by Sir Thorfinn on Mar 20, 2018 19:35:10 GMT
Another thought... Niello....it can turn brass/copper all kinds of funky colors, depending on how long you soak it. The drawback is that you can't disassemble the sword to fuss with this, so you'd be playing the wipe on/off game. For reference, Niello is the stuff silversmiths use to blacken the crevices of jewelry. I know I made a brass piece a nice shiny brown, which looked just like a browned gun barrel from the civil war...but in doing, I had it purple, green, all kinds of fun colors.
Just my .02
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Veerdin
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Penniless Arisocrat
Posts: 78
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Post by Veerdin on Mar 22, 2018 13:00:26 GMT
Thanks for all the advice, guys! But in the end I've decided to cut out the middle man and am having the brass fittings replaced by custom forged steel ones. I gave the blade off to a pal of mine who owns a forge to get the blade profile altered (as it was a bit too beefy to use for HEMA in its out-of-the-box state) and I asked how much it would cost to get new fittings made. Surprisingly, he offered to make them for the cost of the coal alone, as he had some scrap springsteel lying around! Talk about good fortune.
Also discovered that the sword's handle was very poorly constructed in the process, so I'm basically having the entire thing re-hilted, but I appreciate all the advice in any case!
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Post by rhema1313 on Apr 19, 2018 3:23:04 GMT
There is a quick and easy and relatively cheap way of doing this. You can "Tin" your Brass Parts. All you have to do is get is Oatey 30375 No. 95 Tinning Flux, Lead Free. It comes in different sizes, this tub will cost you about $11.00 USD and is way more than you need. Lightly sand your pieces you want to look like silver. Use 220 grit sand paper. Wipe the Tinning Flux on your brass. Hit it will a propane torch. It will "Sizzle" and when it does, the Tinning Flux will stick. Let it cool. Wipe off excess flux with rubbing alcohol. Check to see if all your brass is now tinned. Polish. and Wahlah! Many of the Roman pieces I make are brass with areas that are "Tinned" and some areas remain Brass. Make for a great two toned look. Hope this helps you or anyone else... Rhema1313 Attachments:
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Post by Sir Thorfinn on Apr 20, 2018 13:29:41 GMT
Rhema, I'd completely forgotten about this method...great reminder! I agree, it's crazy simple and does not require significant tools.
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