Sourcing for, or brass lacquer in spray cans

A. Hi John,

You can try looking up Stanchem in CT, they make Icralac ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] . If they don't make aerosol cans, you can contact me, we have a distributor for single cans of clear lacquer in Dayton, NJ.

Good luck

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Ed. note: John posted over a long time ago and hasn't been back, Marian. The thing to do might be to try for yourself what was recommended to him. Good luck.

A. I found aerosol Incralac ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] at a company called Custom Aerosol Packaging in Piqua Ohio. P.O. Box 1411.

A. I have found the best product for coating polished brass items is a clear polymer resin. You can find this in liquid of spray cans under the name "ProtectaClear" from Everbrite [a finishing.com supporting advertiser]. Wonderful stuff and I have tried every clear coating available to the consumer.

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Ed. note -- Disclosure: Everbrite is a supporting advertiser of finishing.com, but we don't know Jim Cross.

Hi folks. We've included a link to Incralac ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] on Amazon, and Jake Koch and Charles Pritchard already mentioned distributors. Good luck.

But the camaraderie and technical help which this forum offers is possible only through the kind support of companies like G.J. Nikolas [a finishing.com supporting advertiser]. Please consider trying their high quality lacquers for copper and brass instead of asking them to pay the costs of maintaining contact info for their competitors who pay nothing. Thanks :-)

Regards,

A. Hi, Susan.

It's not clear whether you are concerned about minor discoloration, such as one often gets from rings, necklaces, and other jewelry (and which can happen regardless of what coating or no coating is on it if hundreds of postings on this site about black skin marks are to be believed) ... or whether your concern is about medical issues. If the latter, there should be an MSDS sheet which tells you all about any possible safety hazards; this is available from the manufacturer. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hello all,

Incralac is a high solids acrylic lacquer. My understanding is it was developed for copper roofing. It is a good exterior lacquer, however, as far as I know, it is not packaged in aerosol cans. G. J. Nikolas & Co. has an acrylic clear lacquer available in aerosol cans, #8321. #8321 is not a high solids lacquer, but will protect non-ferrous decorative metals from oxidation in exterior conditions.

Susan,

Acrylic lacquers will wear quickly when subjected to abrasion and lactic acid. A nitrocellulose lacquer, such as G. J. Nikolas' #2105 clear lacquer (also available in aerosol cans), will wear better on jewelry and other items that come in contact with skin. #2105 is hypoallergenic.

If you have professional spray equipment, proper ventilation and an explosion-proof oven, an epoxy bake coating will offer superior protection on jewelry and other parts that will be touched frequently.

adv.
Please contact me if you have any questions.

A. Hi Dean. Not on Santa Catalina, but apparently elsewhere.

Regards,

A. My interest in various clear coatings for metals is as a jeweler/GIA graduate gemologist. Both Incralac ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and Nikolas products are excellent but, rather than choosing by price alone, a product should be selected based on users' specific needs (see previous posts on this page).

Currently, Incralac ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] is available online at Walmart and Overstock.com at approx. $35 per spray can. Nikolas #2105 can be purchased for about half that amount from assorted online vendors and better suits my particular needs. Consider your own purpose(s) carefully before making a selection, then you'll get the right results.

A. Hi Lyn. Brass lacquer is made for application on brass and copper and will probably be more suitable than automotive clearcoat, which is made for application on top of paint.

Blistering usually occurs due to lack of cleanliness, so get it clean, keep it clean, and concentrate on getting the lacquer on as soon as possible.

Any clear coat, even brass lacquer, will cause some coloration problems because some of the color effects you get may be from diffraction rather than pigments. Diffraction effects, like the rainbow from a drop of oil in a puddle, are caused by light bouncing off both the top and bottom of a very thin transparent oxide or oil layer and the two reflections interfering. Anything you do that puts another clear layer on top of that thin layer dissipates that diffraction effect. Please see letters 41795 and 2662 for detailed discussions of this problem. Good luck.

Regards,