The color of bronze

Battara · 25th April 2006, 11:40 PM

All I would add to what Ian has said is that brass seems a little more yellow than bronze, again depending on the amount of copper is present.

PUFF · 26th April 2006, 05:53 AM

Colors of old bronze artifact are mainly due to patination which is environment dependant. Bronze compositions are varied, even within a culture. There are recipe for 2-9 (and 9+) components alloy for Siamese bronze. Some of them go closer to brass and some of them contains gold. So you can find a full spectrum of red to yellow color. And evenmore complicate, different alloy element makes different patination rate. There 's a microscopic analysis for fake patination but it 's quite difficult to determine origin/composition/age of bronze by their colors.

25th April 2006, 11:40 PM	#1
Battara EAAF Staff Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Louisville, KY Posts: 7,272	All I would add to what Ian has said is that brass seems a little more yellow than bronze, again depending on the amount of copper is present.

26th April 2006, 05:53 AM	#2
PUFF Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 30 miles north of Bangkok, 20 miles south of Ayuthaya, Thailand Posts: 224	Colors of old bronze artifact are mainly due to patination which is environment dependant. Bronze compositions are varied, even within a culture. There are recipe for 2-9 (and 9+) components alloy for Siamese bronze. Some of them go closer to brass and some of them contains gold. So you can find a full spectrum of red to yellow color. And evenmore complicate, different alloy element makes different patination rate. There 's a microscopic analysis for fake patination but it 's quite difficult to determine origin/composition/age of bronze by their colors.