I tried the rubber stamped and then etched brass circles and like the results. I'd like to put a finish on the brass circles like a liver of sulfur aged look. But LOS didn't work and neither did sealing the pieces in a ziploc bag with a vinegar soaked paper towel. Anybody have any suggestions? 

Hi Linzy,

I've used ammonia and salt water to create a patina on brass.   Put the brass in a teeny container and sprayed it with salt water.  Then floated the little container and brass on top of ammonia in a larger container. Covered the whole thing for a while and it turned black. I haven't used this technique on etched brass, though.

 Thanks for the info. Here's what happened when I tried it: the salt and ammonia etched the etched design off! And some of the brass turned blue but not all of it. So I guess the only thing left to try is this answer from Meredith Arnold who had that great project of rubber stamping and then etching on brass. Guess I'm off to the hardware store to try to find copper sulphate!

  To age brass you do use Liver of Sulphur but also copper sulphate.  Mix ½ oz. liver of sulphur with about a gallon of water and 2 oz. copper sulphate with a gallon of water.  Dip the brass pieces into the LOS quickly and then into the copper sulphate.  Continue dipping into LOS and then copper sulphate until you reach the patina desired.

golly, sorry that it REALLY didn't work with etched brass~

How did the copper sulfate method work?

Lynzy, If the ammonia and salt took you etch off I don't think that you had allowed your original to sit long enough to go very deep into the metal. I have used the ammonia/salt patina on many items in the past and it isn't strong enough to hurt most metals as it doesn't penetrate that deeply as a patina. In and of itself it is a rather fragile patina at first and becomes stronger with age. What was the original etchant solution and how long did you let the metal sit in it?

Haven't tried the copper sulfate method, just ordered a patina solution for brass from Rio Grande, I'll let you know how it works. The etch wasn't very deep but it was pretty! Time to use new etching solution! Bought the solution at Radio Shack and it was very old and used. I'll try it again with new solution.

Thanks for replying!

What kind of patina are you looking for?

The amonia and salt patina is supposed to turn your piece blue. However if it ruined your etching your etching was probably not deep enough like was said before :(

Liver of Sulfer doesn't work on brass unfortunately.

I've never heard of the vinager in a ziplock bag, what effect are you supposed to get with that?