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Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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Decorative plating for classic zinc-clad desk?

Q. Have a client who wants to reproduce the zinc finish on some discontinued Restoration Hardware furniture. The finish is applied over thin brass (.020 or .025).

61537-1a

Scott Gross, Two Hills Studio
- Austin, Texas
March 29, 2023

Black Patina for Zinc/Pewter/Camé
black_patina_for_zinc

on eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hi. I've personally never seen a plating shop produce anything that looks like that. My assumption is that the brass sheet pieces were zinc electroplated in a plating shop, or a roll of preplated brass sheet was produced on a continuous plating line, resulting in the conventional bright look of zinc plating ... then someone with artistic experience applied a blackening patina to produce this effect.

Thus I think sourcing it will require two steps, having a plating shop do the zinc plating, then having a bespoke artist convert the zinc to this appearance with a patina solution. You haven't introduced yourself yet, and you may well be the artist capable of producing this finish. I'm not sure if this was a technical question or a request for quotation.

Luck & Regards,

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

Thanks. Have recommended .020" or .025" brass covered with Sculpt Nouveau's iron b metal coating.

I don't think it's plated bc the finish is easily scraped off.

Scott Gross [returning]
- Austin, Texas
April 3, 2023

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