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Having A Play With Some Silver Leaf


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Engine turn the copper

is that possible on such thin leaf??? i really dont know

Ahwww come on man, piss on it. You know you're dyin' to see if it works :D .

Hey somebody was going to say it, I just got to it first.

SR

if i do - i will never admit it. what i can say is that my cats have helped with relicing in the past :D

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Engine turn the copper

is that possible on such thin leaf??? i really dont know

Yea. just gotta go realy gently. Iv turned gold leaf on a few things. that stuff is freaky thin, measured in microns. the copper would easily be twice as thick & still considered leaf.

Id say you could find a tutorial easy enough on youtube or something.

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i did notice the extra weight when trying to use static (or is it skin/hair oils???) to apply it - it was much easier to just pick it up by hand, which just is not possible with golf leaf

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so this it what it looks like now:

acopper1.jpg

acopper3.jpg

acopper4.jpg

the vinegar actually ate through completely in some areas. there was more green but it wiped off :D i think i will hang it somewhere for a week or two to see how the copper darkens but i think this is quite fun

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The front looks awesome, but I dont really like the back as much. It kinda has a different look to it

just playing around with techniques really.

the front was done with it layed flat and pooling, the back with it standing up and running - so the patterns end up quite different

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  • 2 weeks later...

just put these two together to asses how its gone so far and what i want to do next:

Guitar:

i just gave this a few coats of lacquer and left it textured - seems to suit the look of it, but it does make me really want to do a distressed aluminium scratchplate for it so thats the next plan... and maybe rough up the hardware and neck a bit to match

test7.jpg

test8.jpg

test9.jpg

bass:

this one has had more clear, to take it to a flatter finish, although i did do it with a brush so it aint perfect yet.

I am liking the look of this one more, i may change the plate a bit and need to work out a fewe glitches from never having a clear plan for this bass but i am happy

test6.jpg

test1-1.jpg

the vinegar ate straight through some of the thin copper leaf - so i know to dilute it next time if thats not what i want. i did the front laid flat and it pooled creating a look like this

test2-1.jpg

i did the back with it standing up on its bottom edge and it ran which created a look like this:

test3-1.jpg

test4-1.jpg

test5-1.jpg

i was going to leave it to age more before lacquering but quite liked this look so went for it. I reckon i could control it a bit better in future

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Ill be honest... The Strat/tele looks great! I really love the way it looks as is. Personally I think adding a distressed aluminum scratch plate and messing with the hardware will be overkill. The bass on the other hand... I think looked infinitely better as raw copper. I know aesthetics is subjective but it just looks cheap with the vinegar solution added. Just my two cents...

Edited by MuffinPunch
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I guess you gotta experiment sometimes... I'll be honest, I wouldn't have shown this lol. I would have worked on it, f-ed up a few times and then showed the final ones off to make it look like I was just awesome for trying it out for the first time.

But seeing a professional screw around is kinda interesting. I'm curious to see what your final desired result is. Right now it looks like you're just kinda trying things.

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The bass on the other hand... I think looked infinitely better as raw copper. I know aesthetics is subjective but it just looks cheap with the vinegar solution added. Just my two cents...

you are an odd one out in preferring the guitar to the bass

but this is the good thing about experimenting in this way - the final product isnt the only thing to gain, you learn most from the steps along the way... on the bass i learnt how to do a pretty damn good copper finish which i can do again if i want to. I also learnt a few techniques for aging copper which i can see how to refine and improve, and fully intend on using again!!!

so i take a bass thats been sitting unfinished in the corner of a workshop for at least a year, i have some fun with it, i learn some new techniques, i gain a talking point and most importantly i have a bass to play with :D

the guitar was a similar story but there was never an aim for a perfect metal finish like i started the bass with - i am thinking it would have been much better if i never added the copper and gold - i like it in some areas where its just a hint but not where its larger patches.

Right now it looks like you're just kinda trying things.

didnt i make that clear???

there was no clear idea or goal and i have been upfront about that

interestingly i have had far more interest in this on forums frequented mainly by players than i have on ones frequented maily by builders.

I wouldn't have shown this lol. I would have worked on it, f-ed up a few times and then showed the final ones off to make it look like I was just awesome for trying it out for the first time

i dont really understand that viewpoint.

whats next:

well i feel i can offer metal leaf finishing - although i also want to experiment with some patterns and paint effects. things like a black guitar with silver leaf design (or bevels) sprayed over with trans black, or a leaf guitar with trans red flames, alternative candies and goldtops - things like that

I also want to push the aged copper thing a bit further, but maybe not with metal leaf. The idea i have in my head is a zemaitis/trussart mash-up. Imagine a Zemaitis metal front with an engraved copper/bronze plate on body and headstock. then giving these metal parts the trussart treatment :D

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well i feel i can offer metal leaf finishing - although i also want to experiment with some patterns and paint effects. things like a black guitar with silver leaf design (or bevels) sprayed over with trans black, or a leaf guitar with trans red flames, alternative candies and goldtops - things like that

I also want to push the aged copper thing a bit further, but maybe not with metal leaf. The idea i have in my head is a zemaitis/trussart mash-up. Imagine a Zemaitis metal front with an engraved copper/bronze plate on body and headstock. then giving these metal parts the trussart treatment :D

I think the idea of painting over metal will work really well. This is how my Firemaster copper front looked when I painted it before etching the pattern. It's hard to see in the pic but the metal is shiny and reflects light a lot more than the black:

etsmnster-1.jpg

And this is the result:

body-1.jpg

Still not sure if I'm going to have it polished and shiny or if I'm going to distress it...

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I think you could take it a few steps further by using transparent colours, different metals, by machining/brushing/grinding the metal into patterns etc. Like those Gigliottis: http://www.gigliottiguitars.com/

I visited an art exhibition in my hometown today and one of the artists had made something out of sheet metal that he had used a grinder or something to make it look stripey and catch light differently when you moved around. It was kind of like a metal version of really striped mahogany if you understand what I mean. Really cool, I was seriously contemplating breaking in at night and stealing it to make a top out of it...

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you are an odd one out in preferring the guitar to the bass

It wouldn't be the first time that happened. I guess to me it just seems like the 'weathering' to the guitar looks more intentional and controlled than that of the bass.

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