Blackening Brass Chain

[ajferkovich]

Some advice please from some of you learned RCers.
How do you blacken brass chain?. Since bright & shinny brass chain does not
look too cool on an RC boat I want to blacken it; antique it or even make it look rusty.
Maybe even substituting a steel chain and using gun bluing?
Any help would be appreciated.

[green-boat]

There is a product out there that the train guys use called Blacken It.

[CG Bob]

Micro Mark carries Blacken It (http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=60864).

[ropanach]

There is also a product called (PATINA), witch you can get at a stained glass shop and some craft stores, it will turn almost any thing black, and brass and copper it will leave some green segments. LOL



P.S. wash down with water after it dries, for it will leave a caulky residue, the water will remove the caulk but not the stain.

[Ray Farina]

Bluejacket Ship Crafters has it for sale in Maine.

[more coffee]

im not sure if it works on brass ,but it works well on copper. put in an old bucket and pee on it,leave it over night .

rinse throughly and wash your hands.

[t00fatt]

im not sure if it works on brass ,but it works well on copper. put in an old bucket and pee on it,leave it over night .

rinse throughly and wash your hands.
I might just have to do with with a penny, for you know scientific research :p .

[Kmot]

uric acid........

[patmat2350]

Blacken-It may also be available in local hobb yshops dealing with model trains.
I found though that the black will easily rub off, but advice at the Seaways Ship Modeling List:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SeawaysShipmodelingList/message/50747

suggests that better results will be obtained by:
a) precleaning with acetone;
b) diluting the Blacken-It anywhere from 3:1 to 6:1 with water. Takes longer, should be a more permanent etch.

The anchor chain in this image was bright brass, now has a nice dark and rusty look to it.

Pat Matthews

[65535]

Bleach my friend did an experiment with bleach and screws, the brass screw was pretty black after the expirment. Try it out.

[ajferkovich]

Well thanks to all who gave me good advice. It is all in my memory bank.
I will be happy to pass on my experience in bringing about a satisfactory conclusion.
I had first tried gun bluing and silver blackener. ( It's really only for silver, gold, copper and bronze.) As you know, neither reacted to the brass chain.
So I decided to soak a piece of the chain in bleach. As I watched through the glass jar, Wow, the brass color disappeared. It was not a brass chain, only brass coated. The change took about 1/2 hour. I now had a silver-grey colored chain of unknown origin,
I now went back to the silver blackener, putting a little in a glass jar. (It is strong stuff.) Double Wow. It started smoking, bubbling and turning blackish.
I supposed it was attacking whatever metal was in the chain. I flushed it with water to stop the reaction. For a fact, the chain was very black, but even though I did this in the paint booth with ventilation. I wanted no more of that.
Now I again tried the gun bluing. In about one minute I could tell that it was going to blacken the chain. When I removed the chain from the solution
and washed and dried it, there was total black. As I ran it through my fingers, some of the black started to rub off and I was left with an beautiful antique looking chain (well used). That was what I wanted all along.

This is the last task of my Chiba Star build and I will provide some pics of
the chain in my final thread. I can't get close-ups like Patmat, but I will try my best.
Thanks again to all.

ajf

[t00fatt]

Out of curiosity I put a penny in a cup, and filled it with pee. 12 hours later its just as shinny as when I put it in.

[more coffee]

the tin wackers at work,said the same ,my bad ,i thought it was an over night thing.

copper has to kinda oxidize. it needs to be kept moist and left in open air, and well after a time it well turn, antique-y green.
also you should know that todays pennies dont have alot of copper in them ,the amount of copper needed,given its scrap value by todays market would make 2 roles of pennies(new) worth almost 3 or more dollars..which is why nickels have almost no nickel in them and silver has no silver.

try it with shinny solid core wire,or a piece of pipe. youll see the difference with a few days.

[65535]

I had a mouth full of water and almost spit it out t00fatt plz warn me I damn near laughed the water out of my mouth. And bummer that was only brass plated. Sucks because usually the plating is weak.