Does anyone have tips for aging/weathering the brass parts such as Clippard elbows? (I’m looking for something faster than leaving them out in the weather for an age.)
I have heard all sorts of things from boiling them in vinegar to soaking them in a mustard/hot sauce mixture(that sounds odd to me)
i have found that holding a lighter to them leaves a nice burnt metal color along with a little soot.
I did that to mine, wiped the soot off and got some black permanent marker ink on my finger, let it dry slightly and rubbed it all over the brass, leaving black built up on the edges but keeping the rest semi clean so you could see the places where the brass changed color.
then i took a tiny dab of grease, rubbed it between my fingers till i had a nice thin coat and then wiped it on all my metal parts and labels, then rubbed fullers earth into them.
I dunno if that works for brass, but it’s great for wings.
Laughing my ass off…!
take a tub of old nuts, bolts, screws etc and threw all your brass parts in too. pop the lid on and shake shake shake. This will give them a real aged look and add weathering.
If you want to add rust then use circuit board etching solution mixed 50/50 with water. Apply with an old brush and leave until it reaches the level of rust you want. you can also wipe away to taste if you leave it too long.
Hey Nick! Do you sell those custom female alice frame straps in your avatar? They might give my wife a little more “lift n seperate”.. (snicker!)
Thanks for the tips everyone. I should have Googled it before asking here, as I found a winning technique there, with a twist based on suggestions here.
Vinegar does a number on brass. But you don’t dunk the brass in vinegar. You just put the brass in a sealed container along with a small cup of vinegar, and the vapor will do the work. Ammonia will also work. Rather than vinegar or ammonia, I used hot sauce, which has vinegar in it. I used a ziplock bag and a plastic coke bottle cap about half-filled with Frank’s hot sauce.
Within an hour I could see the brass becoming darker. Left overnight, I got this:
I like it!
wow that looks awsome! gunna have to try this myself.
Awesome!
whoa . . . . .now i suppose the oddest things have been proven to work 
while i prefer the dirty tarnished look to the green oxidization, i do stand corrected
great job
I believe that if I had taken it out after a couple of hours instead of leaving it overnight, the green crud wouldn’t have formed. I have two more elbows and two barbs to treat, so I’ll experiment with the amount of time needed.