Antique rust iron finish.

Antique rust finish is the finishing to make rusty appearance to the iron. The antique rust finish may be needed to antique the hardware or metal components at the rustic furniture or antique furniture. There are two ways to make the antique rust finish, by stain application and by chemical reaction. We can make use the stain, glaze and base coat to make antique rust finish  (see our previous article :antique texture metal finish) . But now, in this article we want to share about the antique rust finish with chemical reaction. Principally we make the real rust by the reaction and then after we got the rust effect, we stop the reaction and apply the clear coat to protect the rust looked finish.

antique rust finish

The finishing process is as follow:

• Clean the metal surface  

The first step is to clean the surface to let the chemical reaction happened perfectly. A simple cleaning process usually is enough since most of the iron steel at the store does not have the strong layer protection. Usually the chemical is available to open the simple protection and do the reaction to make rust to the iron material. The surface cleaning can be done by washing and brushing the iron surface with thinner or watery soap to clean the dirt, greases, oil or chemicals that could affect the reaction.  But for the surface with thick coating we may need to clean the surface chemically or mechanically to open the thick paint or galvanized protection.

• The chemical application

It is the process to make the rust. There are some chemicals can be used to make the rust. The most used chemical usually is the nitric acid solution (10% solution with water). The nitric acid solution will do a quick reaction to make rust on metal surfaces. Apply the nitric solution to the iron surface by brush or rag and let it for awhile for the reaction to make the rust. The rust effects formed depends to the concentrate of the chemical solution used, time of reaction and the type of iron. Watch and wait to the reactions occurred, if we got enough rust we can stop the reaction. Wash the surface with water and then dry it.  Check the rust effect make sure we get the rust effect we need, we can do some highlight with steel wool to reduce the rust or we can re apply the chemical solution to make more rust effect.  

• The clear coating application

The coating application is needed to stop the reaction and protect the rust finish. A special coating that is purposed to layer the metal is needed. The two component of car paint coat is the good coating to be used in this finishing. Apply 1 or 2 layer of top coat with low or medium sheen by spray to stop and protect the rust effect. With the proper coating, the rust reaction will stop and we can get the stable rust looked finish.

The rust looked is obtained from the chemical reaction. It is strong, durable and naturally looked and does not a thick film layer. The coating should thick enough to cover the surface and stop the reaction, but should not be too thick since it may affect the naturally looked of the finish. Too thick film layer could reduce the strength of the finish layer adhesion.

antique rustic table

The advantages antique rust finish by chemical reaction.  

• The natural appearance.

The finishing effect resulted is the result of the real corrosion reaction, therefore the appearance is natural looked of the rust. This rust finish requires only 1 or 2 layer of coating material without many layers of finishing material such as: stain, glaze, seale and top coat. Thus, he will produce a more natural appearance. It will give the best appearance to compliment the ancient or rustic furniture. We can apply the rust finish at  the accessories, component or hardware with naturally old and rusty looked.

• The strong finishing layer

Chemically finish will naturally give the rust looked at the iron surface. There is no thick finishing material layered to make the color or antique looked. The coating used is only a thin film that is layered at the surface and does not built the color and finishing looked. It less risk to get the problem of adhesion crack or peeled off.

Thing to be considered in the chemically finish

• The inconsistence result.

This finishing process resulted is relied to the chemical process that is often difficult to be controlled. There are many variables such as: environmental conditions, chemicals used and the type of metal that could affect the finishing result. Some time we could get the unexpected result depends to the chemical reaction. To get the consistent results we should  control of the factors that influence the reactions, which is quite dificult to be done. 

• The harmful of the chemical.

The rust-forming chemicals used to make the rusty looked are the reactive material that can harm our health. Therefore, always properly wear the personal protective equipment when handling the chemical. Use  gloves to protect skin, eye glasses to protect eyes and masker or respirator to protect our respiratory. The application should be held in the open air space or room with good air circulation.