Hi, yesterday we had a query on CCS regarding the lacquering of brass stoves. By coincidence, I had just been busy applying a clear lacquer coating to the five "Discus" shaped stoves I have recently fettled. Here are a few photos: Five Discus stoves. Svea 106 stove Two early Optimus 100 stoves. Optimus 45 and 48 stoves. I generally let my freshly polished stoves rest for several days, or more, before coating them as they do appear a bit too bright and "Brassy" when first polished. Once they have developed some oxide coating they have a more attractive appearance in my opinion. In answering yesterday's query I re-visited my post on Lacquering, which I posted over 8 years ago. I find that I am still following the same method: https://classiccampstoves.com/posts/29738 Best Regards, Kerophile.
They look good. I think this is definitely the way to go, will post photos if mine come out this well, oh well out with the Brasso one last time 8)
Hello Geoge Good morning to you, as all brilliant tutorial and advice. I am replying to this as I was thinking as I was reading this what a coincidence, sorry this is not on a stove as at the moment but having a mortgage etc the price of stoves have rocketed in the past few years. But I have recently won a few standard half pint lamps on the bay, most of my stove blowlamp tanks since joining CCS I have read your post on lacquering stove tanks and have since lacquered my tanks to protect them from over polishing chemical attack etc. This here is the reason for me writing this reply, a few weeks ago I won a Primus630 lamp, my usual method of lacquering after I have finished and reached the sheen I am happy with is to immediately seal the brass with lacquer. Soon as I have finished with the polish I really clean the brass a soft cloth or tissue, with meths to remove any residue any additive in the polish etc, so we have a good clean natural brass for the lacquer to adhere too. As mentioned before a small part I have against the lacquer it gives the brass a different feel which I'm not to keen on. A few weeks ago I after winning the 630 I stripped it down gave it a full fettle and polish, I decided on this not to use lacquer but to finish it with car polish(auto glym) I did not get around to putting on the car polish. This lamp with another I decided to keep indoors for general work with a blowlamp for indoor work etc. In the lounge I was in discussion regarding another lamp, and decided to take a pick of it for part of the reply, I took it off the shelf where it had been stored for a few weeks, and this is the point here and it had lost as you mentioned some of the bright shine and it had darkened slightly but it had took on a really beautiful clean golden mellow colour now that is what I call patina for brass, I did re polish it very lightly for the pic I don't know why but as soon as that colour comes back, I will give it a coat of car polish to see how this works.
Wow George, I love the discus stoves. My favourite by far. I've just started collecting them, although I have ended up with one slab sided one, and only have a handful of the beautiful ones so far. These stoves are much harder to find here in Western Canada than Coleman stuff (stoves and lanterns), naturally, but I'm starting to think I should offer some coleman stuff in trade for brassies (discus shaped only naturally). Stan
Great job on those stove there George. Its funny as just 2 days ago I polished up my brassy stove due to its heavy use and one of my fellow scout leaders priming it when I was not looking made a nice sooty mess of it. Its all shiny now and I thought I can not keep polishing it so maybe I should clear coat it. So your post here was right on time. Thanks for the info and lesson on how to do this.
What lacquer source in the USA? Kerophile (George) cautions that many lacquers do not work well on brass because "The copper contained in brasses has the property of catalysing the cross-linking of polymer chains." So they rapidly discolor and crack. I found two products that looked promising: Thurmalox http://stovepaint.com/Products/AT/View/PID/1/Thurmalox-293-Clear and Copperlac http://www.colorcopper.com/copperlac-copper-lacquer-12oz-can-satin-gloss/ In response to my inquiries, Thurmalox replied "not suitable for your application", and Copperlac replied that they did not know. Copperlac is expensive. Cheaper clear coatings are available at auto parts stores for high temperature applications (car engines), but are they compatible with brass? John
You might try Cerakote. This thin ceramic clear coat is compatible with all metal types including polished metals and it can withstand temperatures of 1100F. I haven't used it on clear metal yet but I have used it as a top coat over soft high temp spray paint on stove cases. It creates and incredibly hard and scratch resistant finish that is completely unaffected by burning fuel. Spill Coleman fuel in the case creating a fireball and once it burns off I simply wipe the case clean. Don't use this stuff if there is even a remote possibility that you might want to go back to bare metal some day. This stuff is permanent. It is so chemically resistant that it is unaffected by commercial paint strippers and so tough that you'd ruin the underlying metal if you tried to remove it mechanically. Ben
