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Cold Florentine Brown Patina
This month we will look at a patina which expands upon the January-February
patina of the month. This is a very old Italian patina formula. It
is a rich brown that varies depending on the inks of the newspaper used to dry
the piece. Here is the formula:
Mix the following: 1 teaspoon
Ferric Chloride (or less)
½ teaspoon Ferric Nitrate
1 pint of distilled water
Apply evenly to the bronze,
brass, or copper metal with a brush, sponge, or sprayer and let it dry. As soon
a light brown rust color appears rinse well with cool water.
Dry with newspaper – it is
very important to use newspaper. You may want to use a slightly damp
paper.
Burnish the surface with steel
wool or wire brushes.
Leave over night
The next day if you want the patina to be darker, you may repeat the process.
When finished, wax over the
patina to darken and set the color. You always should wax this patina
instead of using a lacquer.
The Ferric Nitrate/Ferric Chloride patina will be a transparent rust color if used directly on the metal. If you apply it over a liver base, you will get a rich golden brown. By applying more layers of the patina, you will get a darker rust color which will be opaque.
Here is a sample of the liver patina from last month as a base with the cold Florentine brown patina on the surface (click for larger view):
This is a sample of the cold Florentine brown patina over our Iron Metal Coating. Notice that where the patina was pooled on the coating, the resulting color showed an orange tint (click for larger view):
- Ron Young
