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Posted by Pete C. on February 11, 2008, 7:20 pm
Nate Nagel wrote:
>
> OK, so I'm delving into an area that I know little about now...
> DECORATING. Weekend before last, SWMBO and I ran up to this salvage
> place and found a door for my bedroom closet, along with some doorknobs
> and rosettes to match the rest of the house. Now in the rest of the
> house, where I've been replacing wiring devices, I've been replacing
> them with white Decora, per SWMBO. However, my own personal tastes are
> a little more conservative; the little bedroom is MY ROOM and I'm doing
> it up old school, with an Oriental rug and as much as I can, fixtures
> roughly appropriate to the age of the house (1948.) I've already
> located some of the real deal .040" thick brass receptacle and switch
> plates with the nice crisp corners, and the wiring devices in that room
> will be brown as would be typical. (never mind that this particular
> house is, um, inexpensive enough that it would likely have had ribbed
> Bakelite or other plastic plates, I'm exercising a little artistic
> license here.)
>
> Question is this. Some well meaning sort polished and lacquered the
> plates for me already, and the knobs will have to be polished before
> they are installed as they were lacquered as well but the lacquer wore
> off in some places and is crazing in others. The brass in the rest of
> the house (appears to have been originally unlacquered) has a nice brown
> patina which SWMBO says she likes better than bright brass, and I tend
> to agree with her. Is there some easy chemical means to acquire such a
> patina, or should I just strip everything and polish it bright, install
> it, and ignore it for a couple decades?
>
> Sidebar question - the rosettes I picked up were brass plated steel. Is
> this something that one could re-electroplate at home, or would it be
> best to send them to a professional plating shop? I do have the
> capability to electrolytically derust them and also have the ability to
> buff them if a copper undercoat is required. The sum total of my
> knowledge of plating is due entirely to my experience restoring old
> cars, where I just send stuff off to the chrome shop (well, I did have
> two little emblems gold electroplated for my '62 Stude hardtop, as
> reproductions were not available, but I paid someone to do that as well.)
>
> thanks,
>
> nate
>
> --
> replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
> http://members.cox.net/njnagel
A starting point:
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/brass.htm
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