Three month later and daily carry mine has sort of faded too. The stains are almost gone and it has taken a more uniform patina. I guess that if i want a durable textured patina i’ll have to use a more radical approach… like acid, physical abuse, combustion… :smiling_imp:
Haha!!! Burn it……
BURN ITTTTTTTTT!!!
hahahahaha. I really love my little A01 but I must say I am pocketing my gorgeous little Olight S1R loads at the minute. I may end up getting a copper one of those.
Anyway, I like the way the patina has evolved with mine - it tends to be different each time I use it. I like that.
SP
Hi Freefly. Did you need to take the Astrolux apart before removing the coating? Was it hard to remove?
I did disassemble the tail switch, and removed the head bezel. So, I was able to work with the tail-cap, tube, heat-sink, and bezel separately (I carefully taped off the emitter side of the heat sink just in case). All came apart very easy. The coating was pretty thin, and came off fairly quickly with acetone and a medium-soft nylon cleaning brush. I also used maroon and grey ScotchBrite pads afterwards. And yep, I replaced the stock O-rings with some stiffer green ones I had laying around.
Just a quick note: If you use the salt and ammonia or salt and vinegar method, use Kosher/sea salt (no iodine).
Also, the salt will pit the copper if left on for an extended period (say, more than an hour at a time per “session”).
Other stuff I’ve used that is much faster, and doesn’t pit the metal is gun-bluing solution (Brownell’s Oxpho-Blue).
For even more aggressive results, Birchwood Casey’s Aluminum Black works great too. 
Can you see the coating come off?
The coating on mine was pretty thin, so it wasn’t super-obvious. However, the acetone seemed to make it a bit “cloudy” before it finally came off, and you could see that the metal was a slightly different color afterwards. Pre-soaking the parts for a while might make the process go faster, but it isn’t that bad to begin with.
Used the boiled egg in a bag method on my new cu tool. Really like the outcome:
I would like to darken my BLF 348, does someone know how to blacken/darken stainless steel ?
Just today I did that. Can post a picture later, turned out quite good already.
I simply heated the stainless steel (with a burner that is normally used to make “Crème brûlée”) until it was orange and then put it in cold linseed oil.
The other method I want to try is to use battery/sulfuric acid (~20%), but I still have to find out how to do it exactly.
Nice indeed!
Problem is the stained/textured aspect will fade out rather quickly… at least it did on my A01. It’s like thinly printed on the outside surface. Please let us know how it evolves.
I haven’t played with copper aging since then… I’d like to go more abusive the next try. Something that will not go away easily - physical dents and scratches, acid burns and foreign agents contamination… if that makes any sense. 
This is how the head of the screw I used for testing looks like:
It looks like its fading already after a day of pocketwear. Will wait a little longer, but it doesn’t look to promissing. The search for the best method continues…
I bought a bunch of the 348’s during the last GB and some of the SingFires when I see them on sale because I love messing with the metals myself and have had some good luck actually, the first 4 or 5 only turned out so so, but regular people loved them, but sure not what I had in mind so kept at it.
I’ve used straight heat from my Benzomatic and oil dips, light 0000 sanding, more heat and oil cold water dip to oil, but that way is trial and error, but color can be gotten this way, just have to have a non contact IR heat gun and watch the temperatures, the 348 is some strange SS anyhow, especially when your holding the 348 with some high quality SS tweezers and got some nice color on them but the 348 well I did better with some of these other products and turned out really good.
I get some of my stuff from this company, and they’re not real expensive but some of this can be gotten on Amazon also or once you know what the chemicals are you can start mixing your own stuff.
This one is good, https://www.sculptnouveau.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=43&category=6
And Birchwood Casey black or blue but do all the pre treating first or it’s a mess, I’ve blued or blackened then heated these 348’s and really came up with some interesting lights, can’t seem to keep them around very long before someone is wanting them, wish we could get more of the Nichias
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Edit: This is another good one for coppers etc… https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dsporting&field-keywords=Liver+Of+Sulphur
Thank you for those infos, do you have some pics of your results ?
this bottle is coated with laquer
I wiped the laquer off with a paper towel wet with acetone. It has aged itself, I did not use anything to speed up the process, but the bottle lives in a sock (I sometimes use it to hold hot tea), and the part under the sock has less patina:
fwiw, the Astrolux M03 is also coated. I have had it on my keys for a few days, have even gotten plant food on it and no patina. I have not stripped the laquer with acetone (yet)
It seems to me the part covered by the sock has a much nicer patina… lots of colors!
I just bought one of those Astro M03 and I’m not sure what Astrolux was thinking with that Posi spring contact but when they put in the 10180 battery it broke the spring off so got it for free, my favorite sort of light.
The coating like on the A01’s and any other copper by Manker or whoever I’ve found the easiest and quickest way to get it off is to remove everything and then lightly hit it with a torch, the coating just flakes up and off, I use a small soft copper bristle brush to go over it and maybe a little more heat and done.
Heat torching those A01 coppers give some great results but don’t start aggressively, here’s a pic of the A01 that while heating it I think I realized a few things one being it’s not just raw copper, it’s some sort of copper alloy of course and while heating it I was able to make it look exactly the same color as brass, struck me odd so took a pic of it next to some brass with the copper head still copper looking, If you look at that head for the A01 it looks like it cracked due to the heat I put to it, that’s what I thought but it didn’t crack and I still have no idea what that was all about but sure did believe I messed up.
I will take some pictures of my final heat treat to these later but they all turned out looking real old and they all started out looking all nice and shiny. Got a lot of work to do on these, some real stainless and Ti’s and raw coppers… Fun for … a long time I think.
yes, but, the only way to keep those colors is to recoat with laquer 
If I remove the sock to enjoy the colors, they will disappear
fortunately, I now have a photo that will last forever… LOL
fwiw, Im not attached to any single color of patina, it changes based on use and friction. Patina can also be removed pretty easily with vinegar, or catsup (exactly the opposite happens with carbon steel knives, vinegar makes them black)…
but be warned those acids etch the copper, and it will not have the high gloss shine, unless you use a polish…
Flashturbation removes patina too.
in this photo the worm is very dark, because I never carry it, it just sits in a box
I repolished the worm after the photo above… but I still dont use it, so its not staying shiny either
I was just staring at my Cu Worm (which I kinda dislike -> it offers me zero grip) & thinking it’s not taking a patina at all. All the while my Cu Cooyoo is nicely taking a patina from just being worn those few times I take it to the gym at nighttime (in person it looks nice & even like a old brownish penny.)
Luckily I just remembered one of my favorite threads (as in this one ) & quickly took my worm downstairs for some Palmolive. I rubbed some on & left it there for the night. Hopefully it’ll take a nice patina overnight. Coincidentally -> does anyone know if those cu worms are coated?
I’m still waiting for my Old Lumens A01 (may he rest in peace) to come in. & when it does I’ll probably strip the coating & give it a natural patina.
That looks great. Would you mind sharing the recipe of vinegar and sea salt used?
Thanks,
Peter
