Aging a china made zink cast bigsby

[Greg Martin]

So i guess this would be the materials part of this section eh?
I bought a good quality ,for china , B700 bigsby on ebay,for an up coming relicing project.
Im not a real fan of relicing but it will be a way to take some agression out on an inanemet object
My question is what chemical will affect this zink,not aluminum casting.
lve used pc etchant on regular guitar hardware but not sure how it would affect the zink casting.salt , vinegar?? Anyone done it?

[David King]

What makes you think it's zinc and not pot metal? It could also be a magnesium alloy.

[Bill Raymond]

David, I believe zinc is the primary component of "pot metal". And I'd wonder why they would cast a Bigsby in magnesium, when aluminum or some formulation of "pot metal" would probably be easier to cast for this purpose.

[Greg Martin]

The ad indicated it was cast zink not aluminum.i suppose it could be anything.assuming its zink though does anyone know how to age it? I think pool acid , muratic acid like we use to etch concrete, will age galvanised sheet metal so ill try a diluted mixture,unless some one has other suggestions.

[Bill Raymond]

The fellow on the following site aged a zinc (not "zink") table top with cupric sulfate: http://vanhookandco.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... -zinc.html

Just do a Google search for "aging zinc"; there are a few other sites where aging zinc counter tops is mentioned. One person said that acid foods, especially tomatoes aged a zinc counter.

[Greg Martin]

Bill R thanks for that link.i hadnt seen that one. I googled for a couple hours prior to posting on the mimf.
I did notice the guy said he liked the way zinc comes back to shiney from acid aged, with 400 grit sand paper, so it seems the process is not perminate . Thats as far as im takin it ,itll just be satin.i took 400 grit anyway to it and it dulled the buffed shine,then 600-800 to get the 400 scratches out. Good enough. On to the next.