OK all you crafty peoples how would you antique German silver?I'm making a pair of native arm bands and don't want them to be bright and shiny sort of a used look is what I'm after so any suggestions? Thanks for any input....Pete
You could try fuming it with ammonia. and see if that will age it. Or you could check out some of the patina formulas on this site Patina formulas
German Silver/Nickle is pretty hard to change it's appearance.
Sweat works, but might take a little longer than what you want.Over time Nickle-silver takes on a nice grey color, not sure how to reproduce it quickly. All the guys have been talking about mustard of late. If you have a small scrap try a little experiment, I do alot with silver, but don't age it, let it tarnish naturally. I would be interested in your results.
"Nickel silver" varies a lot. There's no knowing how much nickel is in it (there's no silver) unless you have the manufacturer's specs. If the nickel content is high, you'll have a hard time getting the shine to go away.
Birchwood Casey Super Blue - designed for nickel steel and it works just fine for a blue/grey look on most alloys of "German Silver"..apply and let dry - leave for an hour or so and then rub down with a cloth - if need be lighten with steel wool.
Birchwood Casey BrassBlack will turn it black as coal. Clean it good, steel wool it a bit with some soap washed steel wool, then put on rubber gloves & take a cotton ball & saturate the cotton with Brassblack & wipe all over the silver. Take care not to get it on you as it will stain anything it touches. Then you can carefully rub it back out as required with some 0000 steel wool & as soon as it starts lightening, stop & use a piece of burlap on it.
