Using Eggs To Put Silver Patina On A Rainbow Cap

[parkergeo]

OK, I’ll start out by disclosing that my wife is out of town and I probably have too much time on my hands. The cat shook his head and rolled his eyes when he saw what I was doing, and the dog just couldn’t understand why I didn’t either eat the eggs or just give them to her.

A Parker 61 Heritage rainbow cap (silver and yellow gold) is a thing thing to behold, especially when the silver has tarnished enough to increase the contrast between the colors and bring out a bit of the purple metallic-sheen patina that silver is known for. For an example, see the top picture on this forum page:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/309497-parker-61-legacy-nickelsilver-cap/

However, if you acquire a heritage cap that has been sitting around unused for decades, the discoloration is extreme, to the point that the silver is virtually black, and the gold will look dull as well, which is not what you really want to see on a double-hallmarked piece crafted from precious metals.

Unfortunately, since the cap surface is essentially flat, there are no real nooks and crannies to hold tarnish in the curved pattern. As you polish, you end up shining up both the gold and the silver. There is no in-between stage at that point, because if you only partially polish the cap, it will just end up looking half-finished. A fully-polished cap is very pretty in a case and it may photograph well, but under real-world conditions and lighting the gold just doesn’t stand out next to the bright silver, and unless it is closely examined it just appears to be a shiny nickel cap. As a result, you are then left waiting for Father Time to bring back some tarnish and make the striped pattern apparent.

Or are you?

I was aware that amateur jewelers use egg fumes to tarnish silver in a fast but controlled fashion, and there is an FPN posting where this method was used to darken the grooves on a too-shiny P75 Cisele:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/288325-p75-sterling-silver-cisele/page-5

So, I used some glass dishes to set up a vapor chamber, smashed up two unshelled, hot, freshly hard-boiled eggs and put in a clean, recently-polished Heritage cap. I also put in a Legacy (nickel-silver) rainbow cap just to see what, if anything, would happen. (The dark lines on that cap were a little uneven in spots due to the prior use of a piece of painter’s tape to protect the cap during clip/jewel replacement. Live and learn…)

I left the caps in with the steaming eggs for about 30 minutes, briefly opening up the chamber a few times to wipe off condensation and rotate the caps for even exposure. The pictures below show the sequence and results. Had I wanted the silver to more fully blacken, I could have left the caps in for a longer exposure but I like the way things turned out.

So, if you ever have “polisher’s remorse” after getting a 61 Heritage cap too shiny, there is something you can easily try…

[hood]

I like it - good effort

[nigelg]

Probably a reaction to the Hydrogen Sulphide H₂S - the "bad egg" smell.

Another one for the albumen.

[Flounder]

Probably a reaction to the Hydrogen Sulphide H₂S - the "bad egg" smell. 

Another one for the albumen.

 

Have you seen the new albumen? It's out now!

 

[mitto]

Good. But I think the best option is to leave the pen and/or cap alone. The patina will return with the passage of time.

[Chrissy]

I preferred the look before the egg treatment.

[pajaro]

I am allergic to eggs. I don't think I would want to even handle a cap treated like that. Hives, breathing problems, choking. I am not the only person in the world allergic to eggs.

[corgicoupe]

1000 degrees??? How did he put his hand in 100 degree water?

[mitto]

1000 degrees??? How did he put his hand in 100 degree water?

 

After letting the water cool down.

 

I would let nature take its course as far as the patina is concerned. One thing, I am not so fond of the patina thing. I like the clean polished look of the silver.

[Astronymus]

I am allergic to eggs. I don't think I would want to even handle a cap treated like that. Hives, breathing problems, choking. I am not the only person in the world allergic to eggs.

Death by fountain pen. I doubt that. It's just the sulfur in the eggs protein reacting with the silver forming a silver sulfide layer on the metall. No other "egg residue" on the pen.

[pajaro]

Death by fountain pen. I doubt that. It's just the sulfur in the eggs protein reacting with the silver forming a silver sulfide layer on the metall. No other "egg residue" on the pen.

 

Regardless of your doubts, if you have an allergy, are you going to believe some BS like that?

[inkstainedruth]

 

Regardless of your doubts, if you have an allergy, are you going to believe some BS like that?

 

Not me. That's why all the urushi pens are "look but don't touch" for me.

Some people's allergies are severe. I know someone who's kid had to be carted off from an amusement park in an ambulance, because his hot dog was cooked in the same grease as someone else's fried egg: the kid was that allergic. I know someone who can't even be in the same room as fish being cooked. But for other people, their allergies and food sensitivities might not be as bad. Or can change (my late father-in-law was, at one point, so allergic to dairy that his coffee cup was *his* only -- the dishwasher didn't get all the milk solids residue out; but then his allergies changed and he didn't have as much of a problem with dairy -- but he became allergic to the mold on black pepper (not the peppercorns themselves, mind -- just the mold; so freshly ground pepper was okay for him as long as it was absolutely freshly ground).

And allergies can be really weird, too. My husband only found out he was allergic to bell peppers when he started keeping a food log. His reaction was about 18 HOURS later. But he can tolerate hot peppers (different sub-species) in small amounts....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Astronymus]

Yet there is no exchange of allergens between the pen and the eggs in that case. It's simple chemistry, isn't it? Just make sure no aerosols are produced by the eggs in the process or clean the product's surface afterwards to get rid of protein residue just in case. It's all about the sulfur which leaves the eggs as hydrogen sulfide. And the produced silver sulfide on the pen isn't toxic or allergenic.

THat's how I understand it as a non-professional. Maybe a chemist comes by and explains us the process in detail.

 

Nethertheless I don't think that's the way to get an authentic patina.

[parkergeo]

The chemical nature of silver tarnish is silver sulfide (Ag2S), whether it develops over time from exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) in the air, or if the process is accelerated in this way using H2S liberated by heating up the sulfur-containing proteins in the egg.

 

I like the look of the polished version as well, it just doesn't show very well when you use it the pen out in the real world. Obviously, the answer is to have two Heritage pens, so you can keep one shiny and one striped!

[pajaro]

Yet there is no exchange of allergens between the pen and the eggs in that case. It's simple chemistry, isn't it? Just make sure no aerosols are produced by the eggs in the process or clean the product's surface afterwards to get rid of protein residue just in case. It's all about the sulfur which leaves the eggs as hydrogen sulfide. And the produced silver sulfide on the pen isn't toxic or allergenic.

THat's how I understand it as a non-professional. Maybe a chemist comes by and explains us the process in detail.

 

Nethertheless I don't think that's the way to get an authentic patina.

 

First, if you live with an allergy, it's the thought that counts, not the chemistry. The thought of the allergen causes stress.

 

Second, this method of artificially putting a patina on a pen cap is fakery, faking the aging. It's a counterfeit patina. It's as dishonest as chemically changing the color of a collector's postage stamp to fake a rare color, or faking the aging of any kind of artifact.

[Astronymus]

 

First, if you live with an allergy, it's the thought that counts, not the chemistry. The thought of the allergen causes stress.

Sound more like hysteria, too me. Don't let your fear control you. Observe, inform yourself, analyse and avoid if neccessary. There is a difference between thinking about things that could happen and the fear they might happen.

[Freddy]

 

Regardless of your doubts, if you have an allergy, are you going to believe some BS like that?

 

 

Apparently it does believe the BS.

 

Now..use a rubber sack..appropriate size..over cap..patience and same results

oxidize..without the egg salad.

 

Fred

 

*you ain't nothing but a hound dog

 

been snoopin' 'round my door

 

your just an old hound dog

 

*repeat

 

You can wag your tail

 

But I ain't gonna feed you no more

[Barkingpig]

 

First, if you live with an allergy, it's the thought that counts, not the chemistry. The thought of the allergen causes stress.

 

Second, this method of artificially putting a patina on a pen cap is fakery, faking the aging. It's a counterfeit patina. It's as dishonest as chemically changing the color of a collector's postage stamp to fake a rare color, or faking the aging of any kind of artifact.

The attempt to emulate aged things reminds me of a man who had made MUCH money & was adding some stone entrances about his Horse Farm. After the masons completed the work he realised it looked "new," (sadly, to him, much like his wealth.) In an adjacent county there is a wonderful farm that has it's entire 3,000 acres surrounded by stone fencing, a feat managed after the owner became quite wealthy from copper mining; he brought in masons to do the work during the US Depression. It was several years in the making but remains a beautiful feature of the land, contained therein.

 

The owner of the new stone entrances, asked all his acquaintances "how he could make it look, OLD, quickly?" Their responses were priceless, they suggested pouring different liquids over the stonework, ranging from BUTTERMILK to some other liquids that were equally repellent. He insisted his worker's try each method, only to finally realise there is "no easy method." Interestingly he did NOT require a local University to do same when he endowed a new library's construction, with the provision it bear his name as part of it's signage. Perhaps he remembered the trials his stonework suffered.

 

There is an obvious difference between patina & tarnish; I keep a sterling silver Zippo, full sized lighter in front of me that has never required polishing, yet shows it's patina from years of daily use, same for sterling flatware that is sitting in my dish drainer, because it is used & washed daily. Tarnish is distasteful to me; patina is not. A "Sunshine Cloth" is my friend for a sterling Sheaffer Targa pen & others with same trim. I believe tarnish if left untreated results in pitting of the surface & have seen this in many pieces of old silver hollowware, which were not kept clean.

[pajaro]

Sound more like hysteria, too me. Don't let your fear control you. Observe, inform yourself, analyse and avoid if neccessary. There is a difference between thinking about things that could happen and the fear they might happen.

 

You just won't let it go, will you? You think mind over matter will always fend off panic attacks and PTSD, I would guess. Oh, you know it all, don't you?

[pajaro]

 

 

Apparently it does believe the BS.

 

Now..use a rubber sack..appropriate size..over cap..patience and same results

oxidize..without the egg salad.

 

Fred

 

*you ain't nothing but a hound dog

 

been snoopin' 'round my door

 

your just an old hound dog

 

*repeat

 

You can wag your tail

 

But I ain't gonna feed you no more

 

Is this taunt supposed to have a meaning?