Brass Zippo Forced Patina
I had this old brass Zippo lighter laying around. Getting a patina. You know, when the oils form your skin, air pollutants, moisture, and age make that shiny brass or copper discolor. Sometimes it looks good. Sometimes not so much. I recently saw a picture from someone who had made their Zippo lighter form an amazing turquoise-blue patina. I had to try this.
With a little research, I found that people make these ammonia and salt boxes and suspend various brass or copper parts inside while spritzing with ammonia and sprinkling salt on the metal. Repeat that spritzing process every couple hours. The longer you do this, the more of a patina that develops. There are all sorts of ways to do this, but I settled on this method here. If you’re not interested in knowing how I did it, you can quit reading here and just admire the photos. This is one gorgeous lighter. This is the only one like it.
First, I prepared my box by spreading out some paper towels along the bottom and spraying some ammonia on the paper towels. Not enough to permeate the towels and have standing liquid in the bottom, but a good amount – soaked without dripping. Next I sprinkled some regular old table salt on the towels. Maybe a couple tablespoons full. Finally, I put a hole on opposite sides of the container and strung some wire across with a little bit of slack to it. This will suspend the lighter inside the container preventing the lighter from touching the top, bottom, or sides.
Now that my box was prepared, I took some 400 grit sandpaper to the lighter shell and made it all shiny again. Washed it. At this point I put my gloves on so I could handle the lighter while spraying with ammonia. I suspended the lighter on over the wire, spritzed it with more ammonia and generously sprinkled some table salt directly onto the lighter. All sides.
Every 3 hours I spritzed the lighter again with the ammonia. I sprinkled table salt on the lighter one more time – the 3rd spritz. I did that overnight and then let it sit in the box the next day undisturbed. Dinner time I opened the box and let it all dry overnight. That following evening I sprayed about 5 layers of Rustoleum Lacquer over it. What you see as the featured picture (up top) is the final result. At this point I could take some 1000 grit sandpaper to it and wet sand it. Not sure if I’ll do that or not. I’m pretty pleased with the way it is now.
