You do not have to spend $20 on a corner brace for your next piece of Campaign-style furniture. You can, in fact, spend less than 98 cents per brace and pick them up at your corner hardware store.
While finishing up work on the folding bookcase I’ve been working on the last couple weeks, I walked down to our local hardware store to pick up some cork feet for the bookcase so it wouldn’t scratch the living snot out of the furniture below it.
At the hardware store, I spied some brass mending plates and corner braces that look darn near like the hardware shown on many old piece of Campaign furniture I’ve been researching. A pack of four plates was $3.89. I snatched several sizes and shapes to mess around with in my shop.
The good news: These are available everywhere. You can find them at home centers and hardware stores in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and finishes. You aren’t going to find a corner brace with an ogee ornament, but that’s the price of frugality.
More good news: They don’t totally suck a lemon turd. From a distance, they look pretty good. With some careful insetting and some new screws, them might pass – like bringing home a top-notch cross-dresser to meet maw and pa.
The bad news. The “brass” is one molecule thick on these babies. If you rub them the wrong way with your thumb, the brass will disappear.
Other bad news: On some corner braces the countersink for the screws is on the wrong side of the hardware. These braces are supposed to be used on inside corners. If you have a countersink bit, this problem is easy to remedy.
The bottom line: Don’t buy the “brass” ones. Buy the steel ones and make them gunky with a combination of gun blue, flame and urine. That will give them the grunge they need to look sweet.
I plan to make a lap desk or small chest using these braces – after they have been given a golden shower and the torch (just kidding about the pee-pee). They really are not as bad as I thought they would be. And at less than $1 each, it’s hard to complain.
— Christopher Schwarz
Would love to see a post or article about ways & means to alter finishes on hardware.
If it burns while you pee, does that mean you can skip a step?
I believe that is a totally different problem.
You may be holding the hardware a wee bit too close.
I just can not take you seriously with this talk.
I can get that from Politics.
“But I’m Much Better Now”
You wrote: “These braces are supposed to be used on inside corners. If you have a countersink bit, this problem is easy to remedy.”
Could you explain or illustrate?
Never mind, I see you were referring to the first photogragh not the second.
If the steel is plated the smoke is toxice when heating with a torch. In this case I remove the plating in an acid bath, viniger will work but may take a full day. A little salt and bleach will promote rust as will urin. No kidding I have really done this, even if Chris won’t admit to it. If you aren’t looking for rust heat the unplated parts and wax while hot.
One could use some of the flat mending plates and an improvised metal brake and bend an outside corner.
Or you can get solid brass stock (Ace Hardware carries it locally) and bend/drill to make your own. What’s the best way to age bright brass?
Ignoring it for a long time works quite well. It’s trying to speed the process up that gets a bit tricky….
LOL! Ask a silly question! OK, rephrase, what’s the best quick way to age brass fittings in day or tow vs geologic time?
Take the lacquer off by rubbing or thinner. It will start to tarnish pretty quick after that.
Menards, if you are lucky to have one nearby, my search says available in store only, has a small few solid brass pieces close to the above in design. Which may mean they can get order more types if asked. Or not, but it may be worth looking into. They have a 1 1/2″ x 5/8″ solid brass angle brace for example.
This type of alteration is a little more friendly to my budget.
Thanks Chris.
Beer, wine, or something stronger to, uh, generate the required piss? Any particular spirit?
Urine and grunge have always gone hand in hand
Black powder is very reative with brass. Of course it’s hard to obtain and forget about it in NYC. The builders and users of muzzleloading rfiles know this all to well. Even handling brass will tarnish brass because the acids, salts and oils react with the brass. Thsi is the slow method and could leave finger prints. Experiment with vineger, salts and other substances to discover the effect you need.
Another way to obtain fairly inexpensive brass brackets is to buy some brass strip and sheet, and with a small hacksaw, a couple of files, a drill or two and a countersink, make your own. No more difficult than cutting dovetails.
Jax chemicals makes a variety of solutions for coloring metals. Jeweler and metal smith supply companies carry the stuff. I second the idea of making your own brackets from brass stock. 90 degrees and a few countersunk holes… nothing to stress over.
A wood cutting band saw will cut brass just fine. I’ve cut eighth-inch sheet brass with a quarter inch blade on my sixteen inch Delta clone. Blade life actually seema pretty decent, too.
The brass one’s your speaking of are probably not brass they are phosphorous bronze plated to prevent surface rust of the steel.
Also I know of a trick to age copper, I don’t know if it works for brass but you can give it a try.
The fumes of ammonia will age copper. To do this you have to have your copper sitting above the liquid in a closed container. Good luck
Degrease and brown the steel.
Hand, tool, woodworking.