Here is the 4 week update on the tarnish progress of my High Polish Solid Brass Zippo, with a comparison to a new one and also to some brushed finishes.
My brass venetian came with buffing marks in the finish whereas the venetian slim next to it was absolutely perfect. Alas, once mine tarnished after a while the buff marks aren't noticeable whatsoever.
Thanks so much for the video. I just got my high polish brass in the mail and I'm debating on sending it back because of the micro scratching on it. It's a very controlled micro scratching pattern, which leads me to believe they get polished before being shipped out due to brass' susceptibility to tarnishing? Is your unused high polish brass lighter untarnished because you haven't used it? Because if yes, waiting for mine to tarnish so that the scratches would just tarnish off would not work, because I don't intend on using it. So, I might have to send it back and hope to be lucky on my next order...
Super curious about long term, do high polish brass and a brushed brass zippos eventually become identical over time? I suspect eventually they would, because it's the same material just different outer polishing. I took off a layer of shine on my high polish with toothpaste out of curiosity. Looks cool.
No they don't end up the same. You're supposed to maintain the finish yourself. If you bought the scratched version, your job is to keep adding the scratches back onto the surface. If you want the tarnished version YOU BUY IT. You DON'T try to make the tarnish version.
That's the reason why I don't like my tumbled brass armor case after 2 months it's began to tarnish & the back part of the case is the worst part cuz it is exposed to sweat moisture inside my jeans coin pocket (it's where I used to place it until I had a Zippo pouch). The texture of the tumbled brass has slowly disappeared as tarnishing gets worst. They say it looks good once it's fully tarnished. Well I hope so, in the meantime I bought a high polish chrome armor instead of the Zippo Armor Brass 168 (solid brass). Chrome finish is less sensitive to sweat moisture but the high polish chromes gets scratches quick. A street Chrome is like a pre-scratched high gloss but a high polish chrome looks better even after it's all scratched up. My seller keeps giving me really good prices on high polish cases so I just obliged. High Polished finish looks more formal & decent. 😊
