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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: rustyattic on December 02, 2013, 11:35:16 PM
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I've been picking up a lot of hardware lately. Do you guys have any tips for determining between brass/bronze or any other common metals? I know about testing with magnets. But it's hard to differentiate the shade of metal, especially with tarnish.
Here's some stuff that's not magnetic, I'm guessing it's all brass.
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Copper is very soft and has a “reddish” gold color and is easily bent, scratched, dented or eroded away due to friction caused by rubbing against another object.
Brass is a mixture of copper and zinc, is quite hard and has a “yellowish” gold color.
Zinc is a “silver” colored metal.
See following photo.
All cabinet, door and/or house hardware is either made from “cast” brass (thick) or via “stamped” brass (thin) because of its durability.
Thus said, your photos #1 and #4 are “cast” brass items and photos #2 and #3 are “stamped” brass items.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Brass.jpg)
Source link of photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass)
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Are most non-magnetic handles/pulls brass? These 2 are solid and heavy, non-magnetic. Are they likely brass or another metal?
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Most all door, drawer ect hardware are brass !! Very rarely will you find bronze !! To tell the difference just get a nail, knife ect and scratch the back !! Like Cogar said brass will be a yellow gold color,, bronze will be a darker red-umber,, copper a brighter red !! Exact color will depend on the mixture used,, can be lighter or darker,, they are not all exact same tone !! Some brasses are a bit darker than others !! Its easy after you look at enough of it !!
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an just to confuse you a little bit more....phosphorus-bronze.....when scratched is a dark yellow....