1870s door knob backer

flashyace

Full Member
Sep 26, 2013
103
115
southern Michigan
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter IV
I was detecting the neighbors yard with a little luck, found a couple 1930 and 40s wheat pennies, but i seen a spot that i could get my detector inder their porch, and it wasnt 30 seconds before i got a good hit and it wasnt 4inches, a beautiful 1870s bronze door knob backer, made by Russel&Erwin. Now to my problem, I cleaned it with salt, baking powder, and vinegar, and seems to have taking the color down to the copper, is there anyway to restore its color?
 

Upvote 1
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Nice find! That's a pretty cool door knob backplate you dug. Bummer about the cleaning, but it looks pretty good in the picture.

If you want to try and change the color, you can google "patina brass" or "patina copper" and there is a slew of methods to artificially speed up aging, although nothing is as good as sitting in the ground for 100 years. ha For some copper flashing I wanted to age for a project, I used the miracle grow method to get a fast green verdigris. You'll find tons of recipes for creating a patina... some turn it brown and others green. But you can experiment if you decide to try and age it.
 

That is a perfect example when everything on a home was made with pride and with the idea that it needed to make a difference in the smallest details . Nice piece
 

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