Brass Art Solid Brass...

Brass, brass handicrafts, brass castings, brass sculpture, clean brass,
brass, casting, brass handicraft, brass art, brass, what is brass, solid brass.

- What is brass?

People ask what is brass, because this metal is not found in nature, solid brass and brass casting into all kind of forms such as brass sculptures, brass handicrafts and other is what the people finally see. There are brass handicrafts and thousands of other items made from brass such as brass beds etc.

It's a type of metal alloy made from a combination of copper and zinc.
Alpha brasses contain less than 35% zinc. This makes the resulting bronze relatively easy to work even when the metal is cold.

Alpha-beta's zinc content is 35% to 45% zinc, this type can be worked when hot. Beta brass, consisting of 45% to 50% zinc, should only be worked when hot. Beta brasses are stronger and harder than alpha or alpha-beta brasses. White brass is more than 50% zinc. It is very brittle and not generally used.

Today, it's combining copper and zinc, in ancient times, no one knew what zinc was. However, at that times they were able to find calamine, a zinc ore. They used calamine in combination with copper to make brass.

The Greeks called brass "oreichalcos" and the Romans called it "aurichalum." Romans used brass for their helmets and jewelry. It was already known around 3000 years BC in Babylonia and Assyria. In the 12th Century a brass industry emerged in the Belgian town of Dinant and gradually in other places around Europe. In medieval times brass was used religious items plus for crowns and candelabra, brass was and is also made into jewelry and art objects.

Before the 1700's, zinc could not be found or taken in its pure form because the technology did not yet exist that could melt it. Zinc's melting point is 420 degrees Centigrade. In order to make brass, ground calamine ore and copper were mixed together and then heated in a crucible. This did not melt the copper, but it did release vapors from the zinc in the calamine into the copper. After zinc vapors permeated the copper, brass was formed. It was then melted down to make the metal uniform as solid brass. E.g. solid brass Buddha statues adorn may houses in Asia giving every room an exotic aura and is a pretty decoration anyway. Solid brass is used to form this beautiful Buddhas below, the brass is melted and the casting process takes quite a while. As you can see the before - after in the picture its not done only be brass casting in needs plenty of polishing and detail works to form the final brass sculpture and get clean brass.

- In China the bodies of the vases and tripods were brass castings in shapes inherited from the Bronze Age,

whereas Brass art, plates, dishes, bowls, and decorative panels were made of sheet brass in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and of copper by the end of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The decorative design was drawn on the vessel with ink, and thin metal ribbons were soldered perpendicularly to the surface, following the inked  lines. During the Ming dynasty the ribbons were made by hammering sheet metal, which explains their frequently irregular thickness.

After the seventeenth century ribbons were make by rolling out the metal between two metal cylinders, which ensured a uniform thickness. The ribbons are always of the same metal as the body and are generally one or two millimeters high. The powdered enamel colors were mixed with water and probably some kind of glue to form a paste that was then used to fill the cells left by the soldered metal ribbons. When the enamel colors had dried, the object was fired in a muffle kiln at 700 to 800 degrees centigrade. This had the effect of reducing the level of the enamels, so the process was repeated until all the cells were full. The resulting irregular surface was polished, leaving a dull sheen, and the exposed metal, including the top edge of the ribbons forming the cells, was gilded. Author Beatrice Quette

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, the percentages of copper is usually about 70% and zinc at about 30%. Color and luster of polished brass remember very much of gold. Brass is these days produced by copper and zinc. Metallic zinc was, however (until the late 18th century) not available so, zinc ore was used.

In the past to create brass, zinc ore was ground and ground charcoal was put together with pieces of copper in a melting pot. At over 900 degrees centigrade the oxygen contents of the zinc ore and zinc components are released, these zinc vapors dissolved into the copper, leading to the formation of brass.

Brass, brass Brass, brass handicrafts, brass castings, brass sculpture, brass casting, brass handicraft, brass art, brass, what is brass, solid brass, clean brass.