"Bronze" badges
 

Anyone have any idea what the bronze-effect finish on some wartime badges is; I've seen a few "bronze" collar badges that when well worn, appear to be made of cast brass.

Is this bronze-effect finish possibly an early form of anodizing?.

Andy.

See 'Officers Badges with Sliders' in 'General Topics'..........

After thoroughly reading the thread, there's nothing that says how this bronze effect finish was applied:confused: One post by Mike_2817 mentions how some badges were bronzed in Army workshops; the bronze effect I'm talking about is definitely factory-applied. To my eyes, it appears more like a brown coloured coating of some sort, hence my thoughts that these badges may have been coloured using anodizing.

Thanks for bumping the thread back up though;)

Andy

It was put on in a boiling bath of toxic chemicals and the process is no longer allowed that put that nice chocolate brown colour on in most cases.

Thanks for that mate;)

So, chemically dyed it is then... sounds a bit like anodizing but without any electrical current being involved. I had a look at the Wiki page for anodizing earlier, I knew it was a common finish for ally but was looking to see if it had ever been used on brass, it's do-able (just!) but so uncommon that I was able to rule it out as a contender.

Mind me asking how you know about this process?

Andy