Brass Brush

A brass wire hand brush will deposit a very fine layer of brass on top of hot forged steel. With a hand brush, you want the steel to be about 800 degrees F (well down into a black heat). If the steel is too hot, it will just vaporize the brass and you will not pick up any color.

You can also get small brass wire wheels for Dremel and Foredom tools. In this application, the steel does not need to be hot; the high speed rotation of the brass wheel will also deposit a thin layer of brass on the steel.

Using a brass brush will not give protection against rust. It just adds a little color to the steel.

The hand brushes are available from welding supply stores. The wire brushes sold to clean BBQ grills is another source. Just becareful: there are "brass" brushes out there which are actually steel wire coated with brass. If you should run across one of these, you will find that they do not deposit any color. To check for these faux "brass" brushes, use a magnet. If the magnet sticks to the bristles, you do not have a true/pure brass brush even though the bristles are a bright yellow.

At one time, this process of patination was referred to as "GYPSY GOLD".

-- AlbinDrzewianowski - 25 Jan 2008