Copper Sulfate on steel FREAKED ME OUT!!!! 

I actually used to use copper sulfate in the welding industry. If you have to grind through paint or galvanizing, you spray the metal with copper sulfate and anything that doesn’t turn copper still needs to be cleaned off.

Very cool expermient! Scrubbing the work piece with scotch Brite or kitchen pumice and use a degreaser prior to the copper coloring makes it more receptable for the copper.. Copper onto Iron is a exchange of charge or a socalled immersion deposition, you disolve a little iron or its oxide by the solvent of the copper sufate ( or vinegar or chloride) and you deposite Cu ions slash reduce them into Atoms..the more acidic the Copper suffate is adjusted the faster it goes..but fast deposition is larger copper crystals and less adhesion..so slightly acidic is nice...if you warm up the work piece to 30-40 deg. C it works better...since and Immersion deposit is never sealed you can build up copper over copper for some degree than it slows down and stops..but you can re active the copper color with wiping it with sligthly acidic copper sulfate ( CuS04 + a few drops of dil Sulfuric, careful with acid use goggles and gloves).. Now for the deco worker...take it and dry it..then apply Sodium sulphide ( Na2S) diluted in water.. yes the thing smells like rotten eggs..can be made also with onion juice etc..now you can brownish and blacken the Copper entirely and scratch it back with scoth Brite to brings structures alive in the patina.."antique it" .other tricks are heat it and use ammonia and it turns out patina blue in the warm spots...you can produce very lively colors from copper, black, brown and red or turquise blu..your Indian sculpture behind you would turn into a mindblowing monument with real aging and patina apperance like it was buried for 100 years! Thumbs up for your channel! ->tip a clear coat after all makes it staying forevee

Some cool chemistry going on here. Also some "accidental", but natural electroplating. The iron atoms in the steel displace the copper atoms in the copper sulfate solution; the surfer gives up the copper and attaches to the iron atoms forming iron sulfate. The carbon in the steel grab on to an oxygen atom as a result. This oxidation (rust) is redish brown (we all know this) but the iron-sulfate is bluish in color. Where the iron sulfate outnumbers the iron oxide the "stain" is a bluish color. The displaced copper atoms also oxidize very rapidly turning green, but because this combination has the same electrical charge as the iron sulfate it will not adhere to the steel. The green liquid can be wiped off or if dried it will come off as a powder form. Adding vinegar (Acetic Acid) to the mix combines with the copper to form copper acetate which is also bluish in color and this *will* electrically adhere (electroplate) to the iron atoms in the steel. The only color you can not achieve permanently without affixing it with some sort of clear coating resin is green. I really only researched this to make sure the addition of acetic acid wasn't creating some sort of noxious fumes you should be aware of - apparently not.

Being that this is over 2 years old now, I'd love to see how some of those pieces look now and if there was any unexpected results after a long period of time. Thanks for sharing. I'll definitely be playing with it sometime. Thank you for sharing your find!!!

Definite thumbs up! I look forward to trying this out. Thanks again!

The process you're illustrating here is also an old-timey way miners used to get copper out of ore. Many copper deposits are acidic in nature. The ore was pulverized and further acidified with sulfuric acid (sometimes the ore itself was acid enough or other acids were used to cause sulfides to break down into sulfuric acid in the ore) and pull out the copper in solution (probably copper sulfate). Then the liqueur was poured into a vat filled with anything steel (steel wool, old bed springs, car parts, steel cans, etc) and the copper plated out onto the steel. When the steel was sufficiently thickly plated, it was shipped for refining and copper had been milled. This process was mainly used at small mom and pop operations in the last century. You can find these mines all over the west by looking for copper areas with little mines and at the mines you find concrete vats filled with all sorts of rusty steel.

This is BADASS. I've been designing a metal wall in my home and this is THE TICKET. Bro thanks for sharing, YOU ROCK.

Thank you for making this video. I specially liked the pattern that was created after you sprayed the laquer.

This is my favourite video of all time. Subscribed and wrote this while collecting my jaw off the floor. Now all I need to do is zinc strip some of my steel plates, cut out feathers and then dip them halfway into this solution on monday after I've bought some of that super cool stuff. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this amazing introduction!

Hi! I started as a mold maker for die cast molds back in the early 80's. We used copper sulfate to discolor the steel and do layout. We did this because other layout types out wash off with the cutting oils used. What a great way to make patina! All these years and never thought of it

I discovered this in the 70's when learning to make stained glass projects. It was used to treat the lead solder to give it a slight copper color. Also figured out to make it from root killer too - much cheaper. Store the solution in plastic as it will attack metal including a metal cap on a plastic jar. Didn't know it worked on steel too. Great tip!

THAT'S ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE !!

The copper in solution is cementing out onto the steel. In metal refining, we use steel to cement copper out of solutions. Try washing the steel with soap and water and sanding the surface of the steel before you apply it and you will have a better reaction.

I copper plated a couple pieces of feeler gauge many months ago by dipping the steel into the copper sulfate bath--waste product from making nitric acid. I recently got into chemistry last September as a hobby. I discovered on accident as well that copper could be plated onto steel (non-stainless) without electricity and I was thrilled. I made a quick video about it.--not sure if I ever made a follow up video. Now that I know more about chemistry, I found out what was happening as far as the reaction. You can neutralize the acid (copper sulfate/blue vitriol) by using a solution of sodium bicarbonate and wash the surface. You can get a perfectly even coat of copper if you want to go for that effect. I found pre-treating the steel surface with dilute hydrochloric acid will help increase the bond strength and durability of the copper. Don't worry about the surface becoming black with copper oxide if you don't have time to apply a protective sealant on your work-piece. It will actually protect the copper underneath the oxide layer from further corrosion. Just scrub it down with steel wool and fine grit sandpaper for that even brushed copper look. If any spots aren't perfectly uniform in copper, you can apply more coats of copper sulfate and finish the surface to your liking. This is obviously easier with small pieces that can be dipped into solution, but I think brushing it on should work just as well after seeing your results. As a bonus, you can use a Sharpie marker and draw designs on the metal. The copper won't adhere to the steel at all wherever the marker is. The marker can be removed later with solvent.

A restoration technique that has been around for a very long time indeed. Glad you found it out. Can be used with varying the pH level of the surface of the metal.

That was awesome. Thanks for taking the time

By dissolving a single crystal of copper sulfate root killer in a spoonful of vinegar you can make an "ink" that writes of polished steel. I use steel nibs from an art supply store to sign my personal steel and cast iron woodworking tools. The lettering tends to be kind of ragged but I imagine a process could be developed to regulate the flow-out from the nib. It is clearly a matter of regulating the flow out because wherever the clear ink flows the serous metal turns black. If it is left undisturbed until thoroughly dry the signature will be quite durable. I suppose a brass nib - if there is such a thing - or even a steel nib with the contact point polished smooth would glide more evenly.

Very cool. I'm not colorblind but I see thw blue. I wonder how that would look on those feathers behind you.

The odd thing is that just yesterday I was thinking of concepts for new doors for my forge and then this popped up on my timeline. Really like this effect.

Thanks for sharing. Great find!

You can purchase straight copper sulfate at most farm stores like Rural King or possibly Tractor Supply. It's used in ponds and small lakes to keep algae down.

love the feathers behind you ! Beautiful !!

All sorts of artful application with this method. I will be trying some jewelry applications. Thanks for this video.

Yeah man. It's an exciting finding. Cool project, This is my 1st visit to your channel. I love it. Keep us informing new findings. Tanks!

I love how wholesome and genuine this guys love of metal rusting is

It's my first time being introduced to this art. Very cool stuff!

Thank you for your teaching style

It also just showed up in my feed on RU-vid also. I’m going to explore this creativity rabbit hole. Thanks

Used a lot on lead/tin solder on stained glass. Clean with ammonia then distilled water before adding the Copper sulphate solution. Wax after.

If you use a little sulfuric acid with the copper sulfate. It will react much quicker and will make a brighter copper color. Use this stuff all the time at work when working with clad materials.

Super quick and easy. Thanks👍👍

🦘🦘🦘🦘 ... I found this GREAT IDEA on another site & want to share it if anyone has this same problem & how to fix it. I had a terracotta pot with a wonderful indented fancy pattern etched into it when it was made, around the top & bottom sections of the sides of the pot. It had been well painted with thick black paint then sprayed over with a tough shiny, hard, silver paint over the black, but ONLY on one side of the pot!! I wanted to strip the paint to return it to pure terracotta again & fully preserve the pattern. ................ I read that full strength 🌿🦘EUCALYPTUS OIL🦘🌿 dissolves paint. I found a 50ml bottle in my cupboard & used an old toothbrush to brush in & massage into the paint: small amounts of pure Euc oil. I let it work into the paint, scrubbing it in. Soon the top silver layer dissolved away so I dripped on more oil & used old tooth brush to scrub into the black paint within the intricate etched pattern. Soon the black paint turned to tar like substance as it softened & mixed with Euc oil. I used a small wire brush & a few squirts of WD40 to scrub away the softened tar like thick black paint. WD40 will not work by itself on paint, only use to remove the tar like paint after Euc oil works. It does not take a lot of Euc Oil, use sparingly drop by drop. Clean brushes of build up if needed, with turpentine or WD40 & rub with old rag. Worked well. Used an angle grinder scrub pad on large smooth portion of pot. Wiped it with a good smear of Euc oil & left to soften, then used angle grinder with pad & it came off in one buzz. Cheers.

copper sulphate is a component or cold bluing like we use on firearms for touchups.

Great tips! I loved the metal barn doors you've made Just beautiful 👍

totally awesome video!!! Love the art work behind you

You should try it with hot roll steel, as the cold roll has a surface that is designed not to rust quickly. May give you some different effects.

When I was a kid (in the 40s), the local farmer's co-op had copper sulfate by the barrel, big crystals about an inch long and a half inch thick. Farmers used the stuff to soak seeds in before planting--I think to fend off fungus.

Thanks for showing me something REALLY COOL!

Thanks! That's a great discovery. I'm going to use this on some theater doors.

Cool, Try experimenting with Copper Sulfate, Glucose, and Zinc powders , this is how we use to Copper coat the Silver in Mirror manufacturing! keep me posted !!

The prop meth from breaking bad was rock candy, Aaron Paul would randomly offer it to people.

Thanks for sharing will have to give this a try

Thank you! I work with steel. But wanted to get the copper patina colors. so I think this will help a lot. I will try this right away

Iron is more reactive than copper. Therefore, when you add a copper compound to the steel, copper precipitates out into the pores of the steel sheet as the elemental Iron changes places with copper in the solution.

You can buy pure copper sulfate/ Bluestone at any gardening supplier in Australia. Bunnings etc

I am soooo excited with this!!

Nicely done!

What you're seeing is the reduction of Cu+2 ions into Copper metal , it is a redox reaction between copper+2 ions and iron metal, copper is reduced while iron is oxidized, the blue colors can be due to partial oxidation of copper to CuO or the layers of iron oxides as magnetite

Degreasing has already been mentioned for getting a more even coverage... however, there is degreasing and degreasing. To get the most even finish I'd use something like Steel wool first and then a quick clean with a solvent of your choice. This is still likely to be surprisingly greasy, and definitely so if you've touched it with your fingers! Next, use some lab grade 99.9% pure Acetone on a cloth and give it three or four more really good rounds of wiping and don't touch it! If you look at it at an angle to catch the light and you can see any streaking, it's not clean and oyu need to wipe it some more. Finally, it's now free from grease and there's a fighting chance that the Copper Sulphate will reach the surface of the bare metal everywhere. If it's really humid, the Steel will rust in minutes so you need to crack on with the process without a break.

Looks great! If you want to stop any more rust/corrosion and save the look, Everbrite is a great coating.

Thanks. This fits right into a project that I'm developing.

If you wash the preservative off of the steel first, it will work more consistently.

Man, this is awesome!!!!!!!!!!! I will be doing this on one of my art projects. NOTE: Copper Sulfate is extremely toxic to marine and aquatic life so anyone viewing this video, please dispose of it properly.

That's really cool! I'm going to give it a shot. Thanks for sharing!!!

That's really cool, thanks for sharing

ROFLMAO..... "Use of this product in any manner other than intended is in violation of law." Gotta love it!

Two big thumbs up and a sub from me mate! When we share information like this it helps inspire the nextgen of crafters. You could have kept that to yourself but chose to share it. I'm so going to have a play around with this awesome finish. All the best from OZ, Ben

Very cool! great video. Thanks for sharing!

Genius! Thank you for sharing!

That would be damn cool to do on an old all steel car!!!

Just in time - I was finishing a small sculpture and needed a treatment for the steel base. This fit the bill and worked really well. Thanks! Will be part of my toolbox now. P.S. I just wetted the steel with water and sprinkled the grains on, and that gave me the granular look I wanted. Also sprinkled on some fine grain salt and laid on a cloth wetted with vinegar - that gave a nice rust combining the the copper.

Awesome video!

Fantastic... happy to have found your channel

Try mixing the crystals into vinegar.

Someone please edit breaking bad to look like a 90's sitcom

As I recall, copper sulfate is what I used for gun "blueing" To return old or damaged rifles pistols to their factory type blue finish. The area damaged was cleaned / de-greased then the copper sulfate (Outers and or Hoppes etc,) was applied Once the desired color match was achieved the process was stopped with an application of light machine oil. Thanks for sharing.

Great Person! I loved everything... I'm going out to try this on my 3 foot round water tank!

This is EXACTLY what I've been looking for! I am building a steel countertop but want a more bronzed/rusted look. I suspect this won't hold up to much abuse so I'll have to experiment with a sealant. Any suggestions appreciated! Thank you for doing this!!

Do you have to neutralize the chemical somehow? I'm trying to get my head around patinas and rusting before finishing a large sculpture I made, and I just wonder if you seal without neutralizing, will the chemicals continue to change the metal beneath the lacquer.

Great info!

Very cool. Used vinegar a lot, never considered copper sulphate. Great results

I like what you do I’m using a lot of your techniques on my MIM finishes

Long known in the netel working trades as layout fluid. Far superior to Dykem or similar products.

Degrese it first and you will get a much better coverage with the copper colour.

Very good video. Thank you...

Wow! Thanks!

I would like to see the process on plate cleaned with acetone and with a battery charger hooked up to the plate so that an electrolytic process is making the surface more permanent.

Check out Seizure by Robert Hiorns. He filled an apartment with copper sulphate and grew big crystals on all the walls, ceilings etc

I enjoyed your video , Beautiful work. I too am a fan of working in metal.

Very cool, thanks for the info.

Try a copper ACETATE instead of copper sulfate. Mix equal parts of muratic acid and hydrogen peroxide, as an oxidizer. In an uncovered glass container, add several copper pieces.....I use scraps of sheet copper that I have left from copper projects...or just toss in a couple copper pipe fittings. Leave for several hours or overnight until your solution turns quite green. Your end product will work very much like your copper sulfate, but is, in fact, copper acetate, and in my opinion works a little better because it leaves a much thicker layer of copper, perhaps reducing extra steps, coats and processes. If you think it leaves too much copper, you can similarly remove some with a little #000 steel wool. Where you are actually working on production pieces...time literally IS money. I was actually watching your video because we're repairing a 200 year old very pitted cast Iron fence....We've water-jet cut the new panels out of 1/2" steel plate and they came out fantastic. Now i need to find a method to actually PIT, not just surface rust the new pieces to make them match the original 200 year old pieces. Any ideas on how to actually rapidly PIT new steel to look ancient???

Us geeks who had chemistry sets in the 1950's learned this at elementary school age. Then again in an 8th grade science class. . .(dip a bright nail in copper sulfate). Remember when science was FUN? Industrially this is the "copper flash" plating used as the first coating prior to nickle plating and in rust proof chrome plating which has nickle under it. In my metal shop I have newbies learn the periodic table and basic chemical reactions like this. . . that they SHOULD have learned in public school. You can't read an alloying chart without knowing at least half the periodic table.

Thanks for sharing. This is awesome to know.

Copper sulfate was used in sheet metal shops for marking out. it would be painted on let to dry and then scribed through. Any mistakes could be corrected by spitting on a crystal and using it to replate. It was eventualy phased out due to it's toxcity.

That Breaking Bad reference 😂

REAL men make their own CuSO4 with battery acid and electricity! Haha, just kidding. This is actually copper sulfate pentahydrate, but that's besides the point. I have a neat experiment that you could try. Maybe the results could be useful, or maybe it wont do anything at all. Try mixing 5 parts acetone with 1 part water, then add the CuSO4-5H2O. Mix it up and then paint it on the steel. My hypothesis is that it will give a very uneven and natural look. The CuSO4 isn't soluble in acetone (barely) and with the ratio of 5:1 acetone water, the acetone will evaporate more quickly, leaving behind water and the soluble CuSO4. Don't worry, it isn't dangerous.

Great video. Thanks

this technique is awesome! by the way, yeah, that color you saw is definitely bluish! I'm kind of shade perfect (it's like pitch perfect but for color tones instead of musical tones). And yeah, those were shades of blue that you got on there! loved it. can't wait to try it!

At 4:00 minutes in he finally gets busy.

Woooooooooah that's amazing, my brain is working overtime for the possibilities. Thank you for sharing, even the rust effect on your paintbrush looks so realistic 👍😷👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Take care my friend

wow man , i didn't know ...dude you just changed my life ,thanx !

Really appreciate this!! You are doing exactly what I want to do!!!❤️

Ok, that is cool. Always looking for great patinas for steel.

Nice! Just as excited as you are!

Thanks for the information 👍!

Wow excellent stuff. I can't wait to try that! Thanks for the inspiration :)

I'm a chemist but I don't do metallurgy, I work testing pesticides. I found that dramatic reaction on the surface of the steel very interesting. I suspect, but I'm not sure, that there's a reduction of the copper and corresponding oxidation of the iron going on. So you're seeing the copper color and rust color being mixed on the surface. Also, if you did actually clean off the oil with some kind of soap and water solution first, rinsed and dried it well, you'd have a more consistent reaction across the surface. But perhaps the beauty of the end result is its variations. Copper Sulfate can be purchased in bulk as an algae treatment for large ponds. It's usually found in the pentahydrate form, which just means the each copper sulfate molecule is loosely bound to five water molecules in that crystalline form. Given enough time to react to oxygen in the air, elemental copper forms two oxidation products that would enhance your artistic doors. Very nice doors by the way! Copper(I) oxide is reddish colored, similar to rust or iron(III) oxide. The other copper oxide is copper(II) oxide which gives that blue color you see in the copper sulfate as the copper in copper sulfate is also in the copper(II) oxidation state. Keep experimenting and creating like this, it's the love of discovering these things that is the foundation of science.

Wowzers, thanks for the enthusiastic video and your curiosity to improve your craft. My mind is in overdrive right now. Liked (loved) and subbed. Will now delve into your vid library.

I have seen this video advertised so many times. Im glad i finally broke down and watched. Very Cool, i might actually use this.

I'm going to try this on a steel bike frame. Amazing!