changing the color of non tarnishing silver wire

[michael mott]

Doing more tests to come up with the right color for the handrails on the ship restoration I have been looking at whether the Beadalon and Artistic Wire products could be made to look aged by changing the color very slightly.

 

I did pull the wire through some fine wire wool to see if that would dull it down, before attempting the heat treatment. The silver plating is very thin and the copper wire underneath started to show right away so I stayed with the shiny wire for the tests

 

The method for this test is heat. Using the hot soldering gun to get some inkling of where the temp needed to be i found that the range between 35 -38 to be adequate to get the slight patina. I have been baking some at varying temps beginning at 350c baking for 15 minutes and then upping the temperature and watching for the subtle color change. 380c looks like a close fit.

 

 

Michael

[druxey]

Instead of cooking the books, you are cooking the looks! I admire your patience in experimenting to achieve the result you want.

[mischief]

For a nice patina on metal coat evenly it with mustard let set for a few hours then rinse well. For small parts I let the part soak in a small container that you get in some fast food establishments.

[michael mott]

Would that be "Grey Poupon" or Keens? Sorry I couldn't resist.  Interesting I wonder what the chemical element is causing the patina?

 

Michael

[druxey]

There is vinegar (CH₃COOH) aka acetic acid in mustard.

[Jaxboat]

OK Being a tad OCD. I decided to do a survey of the mustards in our fridge. I recently took upp gourmet cooking so I had quite a few to choose from. Here is my List: Domaine des Vignes Origin France, white wine vinegar and distilled vinegar (Druxey's acetic acid) sugar and citric acid (weak acid propably with some preservative role

Maille Honey Dijon: French, vinegar, citric acid and Potassium meta bisulfite (lumped together as acidifiers)

French's classic yellow: US Awesome hot dog ("tube Steak") mustard, distilled vinegar, Tumeric and paprika and other spices. Interestingly the yellow color come from their spice blend

Publix honey mustard : super market generic US, About the same except they use cider vinegar in addition to distilled.

Conclusions

Nothing obvious. Vinegar is always the second largest ingredient

Nothing extraordinary pops out except the use of acids to maintain a low pH.

Maybe the answer is in the ground mustard seed which is the third highest wt ingredient

 

You need to conduct some "wet" chemical experiments

Jaxboat

Edited February 18, 2017 by Jaxboat