Refinishing Oil Rubbed Bronze

A. Hi Steven. 50 years ago your question would probably have been answerable ... we could have talked about getting the blackening off of the oil-rubbed bronze, the tarnishing to be witnessed on the satin nickel, and how to remove chrome and then the underlying nickel from that one. But today things are high technology, and finish names reveal only the general look that is claimed, not the actual metals. Although chrome plating is still almost always considered a final finish, it's possible today that even the chrome plated fixture has received a radiation-cured or other high-tech clear coat.

Today I'd probably say sand blast the finish off and it doesn't much matter which one it was :-)

Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
January 2021

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A. Hi Nicole. Unfortunately, Delta says there is nothing you can do.

Realistically, what that means is that you shouldn't attempt anything until you decide you can't live with it anymore, at which point experimenting becomes viable of course. The toughest step will be getting the old clearcoat off. Similar looking sets seem to be $400- $500 from discount big box stores these days. Obviously a plumber would have to charge not just for his labor but he'd need a markup on things he buys for you plus an allowance for 'insurance' because every once in a while something will go wrong that will cost him. So, yes, they are beautiful but quite expensive.

Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
January 2021

A. Can't the hardware on-site be cleaned and "oil-rubbed" once again? I'd guess it depends on how long the finish dries, if it's not fast enough, people would be walking away from the doors with brown-stained hands.

Jake Koch
G. J. Nikolas &Co.,Inc.

Bellwood, Illinois

2002

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A. Robin, it isn't quite clear to me why you "cannot use" it. By "living finish", what they are trying to say is that the finish remains similar but is not static over the long term. Like an old penny that stays in circulation, or a brass handrail, or a school ring. The factory oxidation will gradually burnish off the highest wear areas, but meanwhile the natural oxidation process is continuing in the low wear areas. The central idea is for it to thereby last longer than other finishes, not shorter. Still, you can lacquer it, or use automotive clearcoat on it if you prefer. Good luck.

Debbie, in principal it will become more coppery in the highest wear areas and will turn brown in the areas of no wear. How well one particular run of one particular brand of door hardware will perform under one particular family's pattern of use probably remains an unknown though. But I think we're talking about generations, not about months.

We have Amerock oil rubbed bronze pulls.
on our kitchen cabinets and they are very attractive, but they apparently have a clearcoat topcoat rather than being a living finish.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2005

A. I am not aware of kits specifically for that purpose, and can't promise an exact match, but you can get brass darkening solution ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] that will impart a general brown-black coloration. Presumably you can buff away the blackening from the wear points for the right look.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2006

A. We are using oil finishes in our production I have never tried to do it on Brass surfaces as we have chemical aging techniques to do it much easier, but the main idea behind the finish is following. You heat the part or parts lets say in a wood fire than when the part are heated you dip it into oil, which can be used oil also like used car engine oil or whatever is cheaper to get. You should be careful as the oil could light up , I suggest a metal recipient and a metal cover if it really starts to burn. The temperature of the metal part you keep in the fire should be more than 300 °C about so you should keep the products about 15-20 minutes in good fire.

After you dip the hot products in oil the oil will burn onto the surface of the metal, you could try a few times before doing it onto your final part with some metal parts which you aren't afraid to destroy.
After the oil is on your metal part burned you need to wait to cool down and you need to dry the extra oil on the part left after taking it out from the oil tank ,this can be done with saw dust or with a dry cloth, be very careful use protective equipment and do it in a open space because quite lot of fumes are being generated by the process.

Istvan Szentgyorgyi
- Sg. Mures Romania
March 9, 2008

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A. Hi, folks. We have a thread on line here, letter 34482, which explains exactly what an oil rubbed bronze finish is, and how it's done. This may help you puzzle through the touch up / refinish question. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
March , 2009

A. The finish on copper products is very delicate and quickly damaged from improper cleaners and cleaning pads.

Advertisement:
BarrysRestoreItAll offers a kit called the Copper Patina Repair kit which quickly restores the brown oil-rubbed' finish or black finish to all bronze, brass and copper products and a colored wax to protect the finished product.

Barry Feinman
BarrysRestoreItAll

Carlsbad, California

A. Hi, Pudgys Mom. I think you'll find that your faucets are solid brass but the soap dispenser is cheap plastic. So I wouldn't be too harsh with your husband's attempts to clean it. But if I were you I'd scour Amazon, eBay , Craigslist and Walmart for a replacement first. Spending hours, lots of money, etc. trying to refinish a $5 piece of plastic to make it look like metal may not be the way to go :-)

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
September 2015

A. My painter got lazy and didn't remove my front door thumb latch door handle/combo deadbolt before painting. He tried to tape around it and of course, imperfectly. I removed the whole set and have razored off the paint. I now have a few scratches in the 1/16th of an inch where it meets the door.

Digging around for how to tint the scratches, I ended up reading this thread. I have two thoughts. One is a dark colored furniture wax. This would work better on frequently handled things. I might do a coat or two and then put some plain polish on top. Remember, a living finish will have shinier areas that show more of the base metal in its almost polished form. So it's probably better to embrace that and not try for a totally dark finish.

The other involves a hand-crafted lamp-maker that used old motor oil to create a darker patina on a number of metals from copper and brass to a tinned silver finish. Her lamps were sold in our gallery. She told me that if spaghetti sauce or another acid splashed on the lamp base and left a pink spot on copper, gold on brass, shiny silver on the tinned finish, that the customer should take a rag and pull the dipstick from their car and deposit a blob on the rag to wipe over the affected area and allow to "dry". These finishes looked great with a natural patina! They were darker in crevices.

I think if you had a real "spot" with hard edges, you could use some fine 00 steel wool ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] to soften the edges and then rub either the motor oil or dark furniture wax into the area.

I would advise either removing the fixture to work on it or loosen enough to put, plastic, tape or a couple of sheets of waxed paper to protect adjacent surfaces; think about this step carefully and use an appropriate barrier.

So think about the amount of handling the affected area will receive and choose a method that will not come off on people's hands.

Nicole Richards
- Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
November 16, 2016

A. Hi Gina. Probably. Unless the blackening rubs off so easily that the clear coat has nothing to adhere to.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
June 2017

A. Hi Tessa. although there is such as a thing as a 'living finish' as you read just above, I think most oil rubbed bronze on commercial products like kitchen taps is clear coated. Abrasive scouring is too tough for organic (paint or lacquer) clearcoat finishes, and I think you've roughed it up. The fact that it looks good wet is a strong indication that it's the roughness (which the water smooths out) causing the loss of shine. I think you'll find that if you re-lacquer them they will be a lot better. It would be preferable to get all the old clearcoat off first, but doing that without losing the blackening might require really nasty strippers and probably require disassembly. So I'd just try brass lacquer or Everbrite [a finishing.com supporting advertiser]. Let us know what happens. Thanks.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
July 2018

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August 2018

A. Hi Emma. Unfortunately, while you know what these finishes look like, you don't know what they actually are. Some could be paint, some could be actual oil-rubbed solid bronze, some could be copper plated steel or zinc followed by a sulfide darkening compound protected with a clearcoat of various types or left unprotected. Some could be super-hard PVD coatings.

If you can get to it all with steel wool or extra fine sandpaper you can probably get all of those finishes off (except PVD finishes which might be too hard). But you have no guarantee that what is underneath will be bronze in color -- you may scratch through to bright nickel plating, bare zinc or steel. Chemical removal of unknown finishes is difficult and can be dangerous.

If you hate the existing finishes, and none of it is irreplaceable, and you enjoy this kind of craft work, by all means go for it! But expect some serious disappointments :-)

Luck and Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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November 9, 2018

A. Hi all....First, Tessa, what you are describing is damaged work clear lacquer which may be lifting so looks white till wet. You need to thoroughly, remove and re-patina (if want), then re-coat with new clear finish.
adv.
I would be happy to advise you on this process at www.barrysrestoreitall.com.

A. And Emma, assuming a true black patina finish under lacquer, you will need to strip the existing finish down to the brass or bronze base using water and a scuff pad like the 3M burgundy Scotch Bright pad. This will cause some scratching in the finish so you can create a satin finish using this pad by going in linear pattern or use '0000' steel wool to 'buff' out scratches to create higher shine. Finally, spray apply clear lacquer to protect (protect surrounding areas from spray. Good luck, sounds beautiful.
adv.
We can advise from www.barrysrestoreitall.com

Barry Feinman
BarrysRestoreItAll

Carlsbad, California

A. Hi Tracy. It may not be possible. In my limited experience, a lot of "oil rubbed bronze" is not a true living finish. Much of it has a clearcoat on it which looks similar to automotive paint clear coat (some of it might be a black hard coat applied by PVD processes rather than a blackish oxidizing agent; I'm not sure).

If the finish is a true US10B, it is a living finish, but you would need to find from the descriptive materials or from Rockwell whether that is what you have. It might be theoretically possible to speed the abrasion with a buffing wheel on an electric drill, but that doesn't sound very promising unless you are an experienced artisan.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April 2019

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March 13, 2020

A. Hello Leslie. We, too, are art restoration experts with focus on bronze and copper. As well, we make a kit, COPPER PATINA RESCUE, to restore and maintain oil-rubbed finishes on old weathered worn finishes as you describe.

adv.
Please check out BarrysRestoreItAll.com or give a call to 760-804-3778.

Barry Feinman
BarrysRestoreItAll

Carlsbad, California

A. Hi Andrea. Brasso is a brass polish containing, according to its SDS: pumice, isopropyl alcohol, and ammonia. I don't know exactly what you have in terms of oil rubbed bronze -- whether it's actually copper plating followed by selective blackening, or just paint made to look like it. Nor do we know if it's clearcoated and with what.

So the answer is that, due to the abrasive pumice, yes, Brasso will eventually remove any clearcoat, blackening, and copper plating on it, but due to it only being a few percent pumice, it probably won't work nearly as fast as a more aggressive abrasive. If you're sure they're solid brass, not brass-plated zinc diecastings, you might try a coarser & purer pumice [affil link to info/product on Amazon] with a scrub brush ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and then finish up with the Brasso.

Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 2020