Appling Black Patina on Lead Came, Solder, and Zinc Border

by Phil England
(Aiken, SC)

In your tutorial on patina, you include Mother's California Gold Carnauba Wax CLEANER as one of 3 ingredients for applying patina. However, in the following directions, you mention applying Mother's WAX several times. Which is it, Mother's Wax CLEANER, or Mother's WAX? Also, I'm having trouble finding #98 cleaning pads here in our small town. Is some other pad OK to use, so long as it has a fine texture? Thanks for your help. Your tutorials are well written and helpful.


Answer

I apologize for not making myself clear. I was just taking a short cut by calling it Mother's Wax once I gave to full name of Mother's California Gold Carnauba Wax Cleaner.

Your question is titled "Appling black patina on lead came, solder, and zinc border". The technique in the Patina Tutorial is only for copper foil work. It will not work on lead and zinc. The technique for lead can be found at Putty a Leaded Window
The next to the last step, in the tutorial, will show you how to darken the lead.

For zinc, you will find some advise here: Zinc Patina Problems
and here: Patina for Zinc

As for a scrub pad, get the green pads that are scratch free, at the grocery store, for cleaning pots and pans. They're not as good as the #98 scrub pads, but they will work.