Weathering Brass with GunBluing Chemicals - ANH Obi

[slothfurnace]

Howdy folks...

I have been working on my ANH Obi for about, 3 years now, off and on, a piece here, a piece there, but one thing I have always wondered was how to get my nice shiny brass windvane to darken up a bit.

One day last week while I was working on restoring some guns for a client, I noticed I had in the chemicals shelf among my gun bluing stuff was a small bottle of Birchwood Casey Brass Black.

Well, I chucked up my grenade and windvane into the lathe and spun it, polishing what little oxidation was already on the brass off with some 1000 grit sandpaper, until there was a nice clean shine.

Then I dunked the windvane into a shotglass full of the brass black to experiment, it came out NICE. So I polished up the fan part and set it in a seperate glass container, and it also turned out well.

Here are pics of the result, I think I will use some Birchwood Casey bluing chemical on the grenade, plus maybe some plum brown, see what I get, but I have been poking round here for a long time and I hadn't heard of anyone weathering saber parts using gunsmith chemicals.

Also, on a seperate ANM2 Booster piece (not pictured) I used Aluminum Black from the same company and got good results, but boy did it stink, meaning, BEWARE the gases coming off this if you try it. Make sure it's in a well ventilated area.

Once I get my transistors (or decice to machine some myself) and a couple parts from Darthsnikelfritz, I'll pretty much be done with this one.

 

[Riceball]

Very nice, looks really good like it weathered naturally over time and use. I wonder what the stuff will do to fabric, it might be possible to use it do weather a costume as well by wearing the costume while weathering and being a little sloppy about it.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Been doing it this way for years, always with super results.

 

[Werstrooper]

beautiful saber my friend

very nice

 

[franz bolo]

Cool! I did a few experiments here. Never got the brass the way I wanted it. Laszlo had the best brass weathering in my opinion!
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=1558&highlight=OWK&page=3

FB

 

[TheMechanic]

I've been using gun blueing for years to darken, age & tarnish metals.
Birchwood-Casey also makes a special blueing just for brass called "Brass Black" and one for aluminum called "Aluminum Black".
Good stuff.

 

[E-Wan]

Very nice work! I weathered mine with BC products too: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?p=875597#post875597

 

[slothfurnace]

Thanks everyone for the kind words!

I dunked my emitter into the Brass Black for a bit last night, letting the middle part of the emitter sit in there for several hours, then tossing it into the fireplace..

Then I chucked it up in the lathe and spun it against some 2000 grit sandpaper to throw a little polish against the sharper edges.

The darker middle section at the back, I love. The front with the holes isn't quite dark enough, but it's a lot less shiny, so in certain angles it looks quite darker than the surrounding emitter shroud.
The calculator bubble is a bit loose at the moment, which is why it's slid a bit forward.

I also polished some of the tarnish off the front of the neck, between the windvane and the emitter, and off the front end of the fan blades.

The stand is made of cherry, and once I get my spacing right so the transistors don't interfere, I'll glue it down, sand and coat it.

The next step after I finish the emitter is to weather the booster, but I am waiting on an oxide steel booster from Russ, so I may hold off on that till that arrives.

I have almost enough parts now to start a new Obi ANH, I had an extra grenade for years, but now have a new emitter from Darthsniklefritz (Thanks buddy) and an extra booster.

If I run across a good clamp, I might start up an As First Built By build, which is why I am hesitant to weather the current aluminum booster I have.

 

[TheMechanic]

Good looking saber and the weathering looks great!