Kind of media for a worn finish?

[saralugo]

Hi all, and happy holidays!

I work in brass and am trying to figure out how to give my pieces a worn,
allover finish (please see attached images, fingers crossed they attached
in the first place).

I’ve been using coarse bristle brushes and sandpaper with grits up to 220,
then will throw the pieces in my small rotary tumbler with a medium grit
plastic tumbling media for a few hours (no other media or rounds in the
tumbler).

The finish is slightly matte but still too even compared the photos, does
anyone have any recommendations on what I could try? Maybe bumping up to
ceramic media in different shapes and THEN a burnishing media (like
walnuts)?

Any ideas would be much appreciated! Thanks and have a great weekend!

Sara

[jhaemer52]

Have you tried sand blasting?
-Jo Haemer

[rmeixner]

Try a tumbler with various size SC grit and other media. You can try masking what you don’t want the finish on with electricians tape. I have never done this, so these are just thoughts. Please post what works and doesn’t. Good luck…Rob

[Betty2]

Casting would help because you can lose the standard look of sheet metal, but there is more you can do with what you show in the photos.

After tumbling or sand blasting, I would add some slightly deeper irregular scratches manually.

The severely tarnished look would help. Use a patina overall, but also make some splotches.

Then tell the customer not to polish it.

[Betty2]

This is an example of what I described. Neither photo is good, but both shots show all the detail.

The scratches and patina draws your attention away from the regularity of the matt finish.