Gave up on the dish liquid on my copper blf a01 due to concerns about toxicity of CuSO4, cleaned it thoroughly, and switched to baking soda and water. Roughly 2 parts very hot water to 1 part baking soda. With the battery removed and head screwed down tight I tied a string through the keyring hole, set the light in the bottom of a sour cream container with about 2 inches of the baking soda/water mixture, swished it around and gently flipping it in different directions using the strong, then removed it from the mixture and stood it on a plastic lid. I repeated the process every ten minutes or so and occasionally gently rinsed the accumulated dry baking soda off by immersing the light in fresh water before starting the process again. After several hours the copper achieved a nice brownish color a bit brighter than an old penny.
A picture paints a thousand words mate……
@scrumpypaul I plan to post a photo of the light with a new penny and an old penny after the sun comes up to get a photo that accurately represents the results.
cool - look forward to seeing it.
Did an Astrolux SC recently. First I removed the coating (and cleaned/degreased) with acetone and a soft nylon brush. Then I hit it with some vinegar (mini spray bottle) and sea salt and sealed it in a Tupperware container. I taped over the heat-sink, and later polished it up:
Freefly - that is lush. Makes me want to buy one……
Here’s the patinated A01 with a new penny and two with different levels of patination. New photo taken today in sunlight.
Very nice Tekwyzrd! That brown is a wonderful patina…. Maybe a roll in the gravel on mine for a rougher look…
I like this thread.
Since my backup new Cu A01 came in, I went ahead and went a lil wild on this one. Out-rustics my antique brass K18. Won’t say everything I stuck it in… suffice to say I won’t be holding it in my mouth for handsfree lighting! :confounded:
tekwyzrd and chinooker - both brilliant. nice pics.
I like the look of the cold bluing on copper. There’s some products made for this, intended for use with guns made of non-ferrous metals, such as Birchwood Casey Perma Blue. On the Birchwood Casey website, they say that the product won’t work on ferrous metals, to include copper. And yet… I read a post by someone in a forum that they used this with success on copper.
Has anyone here tried it?
I had no idea that the dish liquid would make copper sulphate, thank you for this info!
Yep, I’ve tried a couple:
Brownell’s “Oxpho-Blue” cream works pretty well, and is less aggressive.
Birchwood Casey “Aluminum Black” also works good, but is much more aggressive (will darken much quicker than the above).
Good old fashion heat (from a torch) can give some excellent results as well.
For the Astrolux SC I posted above, I used a mini spray bottle with white vinegar, lightly coated the light, then sprinkled sea salt over it and sealed it up in a Tupperware container for a couple hours (turning/spraying/salting a couple more times along the way). 
That’s the meme that did it for me!
I really didn’t “get” Cu and Brass bodies until I read this thread, saw these amazing flashlights, and that comment closed the loop.
Thank you all for setting me straight! And for sharing these treasures!
In hopes I can be helpful, I found a cleaner called B12 Chemtool which cuts just about everything, including old paint, fresh-mixed fiberglass resin, even the oils in your skin. SWMBO & I recently did some fiberglass work, & B12 spray would literally rinse the resin off the 5mil Nitrile gloves like rinsing dust off your hands. Splashing some from a pour can onto a shop towel lets you wipe nasty goo off your hands equally easily. Not shilling. I love the stuff. It will rinse paint off your car almost as fast. If it were legal here, I’d wager the coatings on your flashlights would be similarly dispatched.
In your tank (from a pour can), add a similar volume of Marvel Mystery Oil (Naptha) for the full suite of fuel system cleaners at one time.
Ima shut up & stay subscribed now. HTH.
Well, this is a bummer! All of the methods I have tried on the copper A01 have proven temporary and wear off extremely easily with only “worry-stone” rubbing in my hand, in only a day. Including my last nasty looking effort.
Now that the sun is up, I can see the effect is still there, just muted… maybe another treatment. :smiling_imp:
I’m not about subtlety.
OMG!!
Thank you tekwyzrd for the baking soda tip! It had little to no effect on my copper A01……butt on my K18 brass, it was amazing.
Admittedly my A01 has undergone major surface attacks by myriad caustic agents and some crystalline structure is visible in bright light. I tried very hard and long to get to the brown stage you exhibited, to no avail, only a rose/gold/bronze which is quite durable and I can live with that.
The real magic is what happened when I stuck the K18 brass, fresh(well, a day or so) out of the vinegar vapor treatment into the baking soda bath. It tried to turn everything dark brown/black, butt w/highlight/burnished areas standing out.
It’s kinda dark out now and artificial light won’t cut it. I promise a few pics that might get you looking for your Arm & Hammer.
Now that’s what I was looking for!
I ‘worked’ on two copper A01 BLF special edition… Never did that before and never imagined i would do that to such a beautiful light… But then scrumpypaul started to show off he’s along with nice leather lanyards… and i was done!
This is the first one i did. After washing off the coating with acetone i buried it in crushed hard boiled egg for about an hour, changing it’s position a few times:
Not pictured is the gray leather lanyard with the same hand carved brazilian rosewood bead.
Here is the second one (i gave away the first one). This time i sort of painted the ends with dish washing liquid but did not see any oxidation after about ten minutes and wiped it off. I then buried it in hard boiled egg inside a bag for several hours, shuffling the inside a few times every hour or so:
Brown suede string with a hand carved bead in spalted boxwood i picked up not far from where i live.
I like to ‘bury’ my lights in the crushed egg because it does produce stains and texture… On the second one it seems the short dish washing treatment on the ends did produce some accented stains… not sure really. 
Hey Pat. They look great. Mine has evolved into a sort of warm, lived-in look. It gets lighter with handling.
Hey Pat. They look great. Mine has evolved into a sort of warm, lived-in look. It gets lighter with handling.
