bronzing steel

[twicecustom]

I had a customer come in today that lost a son to a car wreck last year, he was a good friend of mine as well. They want to put a cross out, anyways, he used to live in AZ and there was a guy there many years ago that made horseshoe art. He was telling me about how he would bronze the horseshoes with like brazing rod, then brush it off with a wire brush, would leave a nice finish that lasted as well, anyone know how to do this? He called it poor mans bronzing.

[J&S]

I've done this several times. What I do is cut a groove in the steel with a cut off wheel first, then braze the groove and grind flush. The hard part is making sure not to warp the steel the thicker the steel the better if it is a very complex design.
If you really want the brass color to shine, cold blue the hole piece when your finished and buff with steel wool.

Takes alittle time but the result is worth it, Ive alwats wanted to try gouging using the plasma table instead of using a cutting wheel and doing it all by hand.
good luck

[twicecustom]

He was coating the whole thing in the braze.

[steelfx]

Another way to do a "poor man's bronze" is to forge heat or torch heat your steel to cherry red, then
quickly brush the heated steel with a brass brush. The brush I used was a long-handled wire brush with
brass (bronze) bristles instead of the typical steel or SS bristles. It's pretty easy & looks really cool.

just fyi...bronze & brass are pretty much the same thing: 80% Cu & 20% Tin.