Although, in this case, not a cultural reference but the color of hinges.  I needed double acting hinges for the privacy screen project, but they only come in brass plated steel, which is not a good look for this project.

So I tried using liver of sulphur to patina the brass.  No luck.  For some reason, the plating didn’t tarnish like solid brass does. What I got instead, was a blotchy mess of various colors that looked like someone spilled something on them.

After a bit of pondering, I decided to try a gun blacking kit from Blue Wonder™.  It’s a four step process that removes the plating, bonds the colorant to the metal, and seals it.  After a day of working with smelly chemicals, hot metal and some 3M abrasive wool, the results were better than I could have hoped for.

The deep, shiny black color nicely complements the ebony plugs.  The project is nearly finished.

Cheers,
Tom