I appreciate the anti-corrosion effect of brass regarding seawater but the
depth of corrosion required to "seal" the metal is probably greater than the
thickness of most brasswork on a set of pipes.
If you ever clean badly corroded brass to get it to look like brass again,
you'll find a very pitted surface underneath (I have a large collection of
Victorian brass - candlesticks, horse brasses etc) so, by all means leave it
green - if you never want it to look smooth and "brassy" again.
Remember that some pipes have ferrules which are not solid metal but are
plated - and thin plating at that (maybe NS on brass - the EPNS found on old
fruit baskets etc) and, if that corrodes, you are left with patches of brass
showing through. By the same token, cleaning them will wear the plating off
as well - eventually.
Gold fittings won't tarnish (well, people have gold flutes so why not).
Colin Hill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bo Albrechtsen" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 9:45 PM
Subject: [NSP] Re: re-conditioning ... (dangers of brass tarnish?)
Den 14-01-2011 21:39, [1][email protected] skrev:
..snip
With brass, the same is not true for copper and its alloys.
So corrosion doesn't prevent further corrosion.
Sorry, but I don't quite follow you there. Rust on iron or steel does
not prevent further corrosion, but exactly the copper alloys brass and
bronze plus pure copper are very well protected by the oxidated layer
on the surface. This even works well i a marine environment thus being
the reason for all the "brasswork" that used to be onboard ships.
Further, the verdigris expands, relative to the metal that was there
before, so mechanisms can be jammed.
Yes ! Also the metal oxides accelerates the tendencies of vegetable
oils to turn into gum-like "snotomers" ( he-he, thank's Julia)
And it looks vile as well.
Depends on the eye of the beholder ;-)
But it is also slightly poisonous.
Bo A
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