Hi Bill and welcome to the forum.
I completely agree with Alan on a couple of points. Firstly that arsenic will give the best results. Other staining agents will affect the metal in similar ways, but the resulting colors will never be quite right.
Secondly, as a new member i cannot recommend to you more that you try using the search function to see where this forum and the main forum have already been on any particular subject. The Classic thread you read is just one of many threads that have been posted on this subject. Dig around a bit first and if you don't find the answers you are looking for try posting a more specific question.