Large Scale Central

Brass Darkening Solution

Reviews
#1

I make many detail parts from brass rod and/or brass sheet. For years, I bought bottles of A-West Blacken-It for this purpose. At $9.95 for a 4 oz bottle, it was starting to get a bit expensive. Last year, I bought a 32 oz bottle of Brass Darkening Solution from Rockler Woodworking. They sell it in three sizes: $5.49 for 2 oz, $10.99 for 8 oz, and $29.95 for 32 oz.

That is $2.50 per ounce for Blacken-It vs. $0.94 per ounce for the Rockler product.

I think the results are far better than what was achieved with the Blacken-It. The only downside is that it doesn’t darken white metal casting, such as from Ozark Miniatures or Western Scale Models. It works fantastic though on brass and copper parts.

http://www.rockler.com/darkening-solution

Bob

#2

Bob and all:

Another source is the PATINA that is applied to either zinc or lead stained glass support came.
The Novacan Black Patina for solder and lead is obtained from any stainglass supply – use google. The same for the one that is especially for zinc – which is not quite as dark in effect. My wife and I create stain glass windows and projects.

$5.00 for 8 ounce bottle.

Wendell

#3

I’ve not been impressed with the A-West product. I got a bottle of it because it was available at my local hobby shop, but I prefer the Birchwood Casey Brass Black. The A-West stuff seems to be comparatively weak compared to the B-C product.

Later,

K