My first bronze casting

[mite5255]

I finally got the plaque cast

[F.C.]

Looks very good, Mike... congrats!! That patina didn't turn out bad at all... I'm surprised. One thing to remember, wash that piece (after you've gotten the color dark as you want) and wash it a few times with detergent to ensure no further patina reaction is occuring. Then take a block of flat wood, tape a piece of 180 grit sand paper to it, then burnish off the high points (letering and border) in a nice smooth, even vertical, or horizontal pattern so the visual is consistant. Wash it once more, gently, to remove any micro grits, bake it at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes, pull it out, set it up where you're going to paint it then coat the entire piece with a semi gloss CLEAR acrylic spray paint. She will think you bought it special ordered through the catelog

Nice work, Mike!!

[mite5255]

I don't know why but the photo keeps come up upside down, anyway it still needs a clear coat

[F.C.]

Mike, how did you apply that fertilizer? Did you merely spread it on the bronze or did you mix the fertilizer in water and immerse the plaque in the solution? The best way to obtain the deepest brown color with sulfur is to mix it as a strong solution with water then heat both, the solution and the plaque, and immerse the plaque and let it set for an hour or so.

What I'm also noticing with your picture is that there is a hint of green in the patina. That's no doubt due to some amonia nitrate in with the fertilizer. One way to get bronze to turn verde green is to soak sawdust in amonia then bury your bronze in the sawdust and cover it with an air tight lid. Allow it to set over night, or up to a week per your preference on color.

Your plaque looks great, though... WELL DONE!

[mite5255]

Mike, how did you apply that fertilizer? Did you merely spread it on the bronze or did you mix the fertilizer in water and immerse the plaque in the solution? The best way to obtain the deepest brown color with sulfur is to mix it as a strong solution with water then heat both, the solution and the plaque, and immerse the plaque and let it set for an hour or so.

What I'm also noticing with your picture is that there is a hint of green in the patina. That's no doubt due to some amonia nitrate in with the fertilizer. One way to get bronze to turn verde green is to soak sawdust in amonia then bury your bronze in the sawdust and cover it with an air tight lid. Allow it to set over night, or up to a week per your preference on color.

Your plaque looks great, though... WELL DONE!

I put the fert in a spray bottle and gave it a good shake, I then heated the plaque with a gas torch and sprayed the mixture onto the plaque, heated again and sprayed it , i did that maybe 6 or more times, it left a white powder on the plaque so I just washed that off and BINGO all done. next time I may try immersing the whole plaque in a solution bath and see how I get on
Photo is the plaque with 3 coats of clear
I have some pieces of plaque that was a failed or learning experience casting, I'll use one piece for and experiment with the saw dust

[mite5255]

I could not have got this far without your advise and help Frank I thank you, if the postal service would allow it I would post you a can of beer or two

Thanks Richard on your advice on using silicon bronze instead of phosphor bronze, the silicon bronze sure was a lot easer to cast, a beer or two for you also if the postal service would allow it
The last time I tried to post alcohol over sea's the Canadian customs confiscated it, they say they poured the bottle of wine down the sink, yea I bet they did

[F.C.]

Don 't sell yourself short, Mike.... YOU did GREAT doin what you did. I only offered some insight as to what to do for patina and some thoughts toward what would work better to facilitate a cast. Had you not already had sufficient experience at determining what "didn't" work you wouldn't have had the inclination to listen to anything I offered as a solution. ALL EXPERIENCE you gather under your belt is critical to understand what it is you're doing wrong. You would have figured it out on your own. I just saved you a test or two

How good are you at carving? I have a project you might be interested in doing to get yourself some extra income and confidence built to tackle more profitable work.

[mite5255]

Don 't sell yourself short, Mike.... YOU did GREAT doin what you did. I only offered some insight as to what to do for patina and some thoughts toward what would work better to facilitate a cast. Had you not already had sufficient experience at determining what "didn't" work you wouldn't have had the inclination to listen to anything I offered as a solution. ALL EXPERIENCE you gather under your belt is critical to understand what it is you're doing wrong. You would have figured it out on your own. I just saved you a test or two

How good are you at carving? I have a project you might be interested in doing to get yourself some extra income and confidence built to tackle more profitable work.

Very true Frank, you do need sufficient experience to be able to work out what’s gone wrong, you also need the don’t give up attitude so you can push ahead, plus, with luck people to help along the way to lesson the frustration.
All up I cast this plaque about 6 times with different varying results and it was getting very frustrating, but the change to silicon bronze and the 2nd silicon casting was the good one thanks to Richard’s advice. Doing the patina was a bit of a worry seeing that I had no idea what I was doing, but thanks to your experience I got there. It was a great leaning experience I learned more with each attempt then I would have if it worked first time I tried to cast it

How good am I at carving, one word, hopeless, hang on, two words, f&^king hopeless lol, I don’t have one once of artistic ability in my body, mores the pity. I’m always on the look out for someone that can do that type of work tho. Any patterns that need to be carved I need to pay someone to ether do it by hand or do it on a cnc

[mite5255]

I just found this little tit bit on patination of metal, I also added it to the library
http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6755880_color ... etals.html

[F.C.]

Hey Mike, do you have access to American Pennies, or perhaps Zinc annodes used on boat hulls in salt water? I'm still work'n toward giving you something fun to do that may spark some interest in your area toward your developed talant at casting metal.