JAX Brown Darkener - Metal Finishing Solution - Antique Finish without Heat or Electricity - Pint

This worked flawlessly and rapidly. I bought this to darken a brass Byzantine cross Enkolpion. Before applying the darkener, I made sure that my cross was free of any oils or external coatings by cleaning it with pure acetone. This ended becoming darker than what I originally wanted, but this was my fault for letting the cross sit longer in the product. If I were to do this again, I would probably dilute the product with water to slow down the reaction. 10/10 would buy again.

I had to repair the finish on a large bronze deer. During the restoration of the concrete pedestal that the bronze sits on particles of cement got on the deer and caused the finish to be removed due to the alkalinity of the cement. The Jax finishing solution was very easy to use. It took very little time for the finish to start appearing . I used the dawn dish detergent as recommended to clean the area and remove the oil finish. The surface came out as a deep brown exactly what was needed to match the existing finish. The entire job took about 30 minutes. Yes the product is more expensive but it is well worth the extra expense. I had tried the liver of sulfur and it did not work at all. It did no mater how hot I made the solution or the bronze deer. With the Jax I did not do any heating. To top it all of, the liver of sulfur was not returnable. A total waste of money and hours time for a product that did not work. The Jax Metal brown finish worked perfectly. Now the bronze deer looks great . Highly recommend.

The product did change the patent slightly, but not as I had hope. The handles to which I applied the product may not have had as much brass content as I thought.

This works amazingly easy and looks fabulous, totally controllable. The saxophone was delacquered then using Jax to do a forced patina. Be sure to clean the bare brass so it’s free of oils and avoid handling the brass so you don’t get anything from your hands on it otherwise that might be an area where the solution won’t take as well.

I have used this solution for several antique restoration projects and it never disappoints. A bit expensive at times but worth every penny once you see the results!

Pros: - None Cons: - Barely changes color of brass, and only in spots and after multiple treatments despite the fact I made sure the brass had no protective coating NOT recommended. When I ran out of Brass Darkening Solution I bought Jax instead to see if it worked as well. It failed miserably. Brass Darkening Solution always works fast and flawlessly on brass, buy that instead. I'll never buy Jax again.

We had very nice, solid shiny brass knobs and wanted something darker. I saw a video on darkening brass on YouTube with Martha Stewart. Her process was to use sandpaper to remove the lacquer but we have 62 knobs to deal with so that process was daunting. We used a rock Tumbler to remove the lacquer which worked very well. We tumbled them and small batches for about six hours. Getting the lacquer off is the key to a good finish. We also diped them in acetone before darkening for a uniform finish. After darkening, we used fine steel wool to get a uniform color and look. Then we put two coats of spray lacquer on the knobs. This process sounds tedious but it was not that bad. The outcome was excellent and saved us from buying 62 knobs of a lower quality. The most important Factor in getting a nice finish is to get the lacquer off.

It's like water, but after a minute it turns bare copper brown. Wash it, dry it and buff it with some very fine steel wool and it looks great! I tried some on copper that had been treated to not tarnish and it didn't work, which shouldn't have been a surprise.