8. Dial Finishing Exploration
One of the ideas i had for creating an interesting finish on the dial was to use a brass dial and apply a patina finish on it. The goal was to create a deep jade with a uniform finish.
The company Sculpt Nouveau makes several patina formulations that can be applied to various metals to get desired colors. I bought the Jade Green Traditional Patina and the Dye Oxide Black to see how the two different reagents reacted to the brass.
Both Patinas recommend the brass to be heated for the reagents to work. So, I setup a hotplate and applied the patinas with a cue-tip to see if I could get a uniform coating / color over the brass dial. The dial itself is a blank brass dial I bought online.
Hot plate with the two patina solutions
The pictures below is the bare brass dial before applying the patina solutions. I used 1200 grit sand paper on the surface after cleaning off any oils to improve the reaction of the patina solutions with the brass.
Brass dial cleaned and sanded with 1200 grit sandpaper
I first tried the Black Oxide Dye. From the images and videos online, it was hard to tell how the solution changed the color of the base metal. When I applied it to the heated brass dial, the solution evaporated almost immediately and left a black powdery residue that was weakly adhered to the brass. Some of that black residue came off when wiped with a paper towel, but some of it seemed bonded. It was hard to control the intensity and uniformity of the color. It almost looked like it was Sharpied on. You can see this in the image below:
The Jade Green patina is a different type of solution. It is designed to react with the copper in the brass and change the color of the brass to green, online the Black Oxide Dye that just applies a residue on the surface. While I liked the results of this better, I was not satisfied by the lack of uniformity and inability to control the color. The results are too abstract arty for me. I was hoping for a uniform color.
Jade Green patina solution
Next Steps:
I am going to try enamel paint - which is the paint of choice for high-end watches.