Ive never heard of this. Thoughts?
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Okay, I tend to be a bit cynical when it comes to unexplainable phenomena.
Orange: citric acid and various flavor compounds. Sugar.
Pickles: vinegar, salt.
Coffee: cofee.
Salt: more salt.
Of all of the above, only the acetic acid in the vinegar and the flavor compounds in the orange are volatile, and so can travel through the air and do stuff at a distance. I haven’t tried exposing copper to vinegar fumes, but I’m sure others have, and their ruling here should be considered final.
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Here’s a quick resource from Tim McCreight, Patina Basics
There are a couple of good books that include patinas using household items, such as salt, vinegar coffe/tea and ammonia as well.
Exciting stuff,
Pam
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Exposing copper to the fumes of acetic acid produces copper acetate, AKA verdigris.
There are lots of compounds that are, or were, made this way. Most famously, lead exposed to acetic acid fumes produces white lead, formerly used as a pigment in paints and cosmetics.
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I see in Pam6’s link that the effect of coffee is giving ‘texture’ and subtlety to the coloration, which requires the metal to be in contact with saturated coffee grounds. Lots of good ideas there! Still, coffee won’t do diddly through fumes.
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I resurrected this string on copper patination because I am having trouble getting copper to patinate. I have no problem with LOS and can control how much it patinates by first getting it very dark and dull and then selectively removing it, brushing it, polishing it, tumbling it until I get where I want to go. I usually finish with Renaissance Wax or Meguars polish. Getting a green or blue color is another story. Based on a review of the archives and other sources, I have tried ammonia, ammonia and salt, ammonia salt and vinegar, vinegar, Miracid spraying them alone or in combination, submerging then, fuming them and none of this does much or at least it doesn’t create a color that I like. I am ready to buy a commercial patination chemical. If anyone has any ideas, either about what I am doing wrong or a good chemical or two, I would appreciate hearing them. The copper samples are raw 100 pure copper that has been cleaned and abraded a with copper cleaner and a nylon pad. Thanks…Rob
Rob I remember that series of posts. We use to play a lot with the patinas at the Appalachian Craft center. Lots of scarp copper. Most the patinas would sluff off being more like a rust type residue. Even putting Renaissance wax on them wouldn’t hold it in all spots. We found the best patina’s were the ones that you applied and built up where it acted more like a paint. Then there was the way to get a pretty brown patina not like the kind you have over time on pennies. That you put peanut oil on the copper. The trick that made it work, and not want to ever come off was you had to wipe the peanut oil off before putting it into an oven set at 200 degrees F. You had to really wipe it off more like polishing and not wanting to leave any residue. So the barest of oil. Then there was the accident I had when my blonde headed daughter (yes she fits the description intellectually) dropped a spoon she decided to use instead of the tongs to get my pieces out of the pickle. She left the spoon in the pot, I found it the next day, along with one of my copper Christmas tree ornaments. It had the brightest chartreuse color. It couldn’t be blasted off. I hated it, but others loved it. That was when we lived in the East bay of San Francisco. Maybe the water there helped. Here in Florida, it doesn’t come out as bright green at in SF area.
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Aggie…I think that there is a lesson here, I just need to unwrap it. Thanks…Rob
Richard Hughes and Michael Rowe’s book, The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals, has dozens of formulae with photos of their effects. It is available to borrow on archive.org, and used copies can be found from time to time. If your work regularly features patinas it’s worth having in your library.
Thanks, I have the book Patina by Matthew Runfola and it describes the process, results and many recipes for various metals and colors. I was just hoping to find a home DYI solution first before investing in all the chemicals that are called for in his book.
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