Brasses may be polished to a
high surface finish which can then be either easily repolished when required or lacquered
to preserve the natural colour, enamelled or plated with chromium, nickel, tin, silver,
gold, etc. as required. Alternatively, the surface can be toned to a range of
colours, from
"bronze" through various shades of brown, to blue-black and black, using
commercially available toning chemicals. These coloured finishes are frequently used for
decorative and architectural metalwork.
- All types of common plating processes may be used. For many other metals
it is usual to use a copper plate underlayer. This is not required on brass because it is
easily polished and does not need the expense of an initial copper strike. To give extra
corrosion protection to steel when used against brass, cadmium plating of the brass was
traditional but this has now been generally replaced by zinc.
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