Just wanted to commend you and your staff on your beautiful work. I use your Don Alan chop cup in copper and it is a staple of my bar act every week. When Jake ran the company, he had a few other options for cups that have disappeared, namely the blue gun steel. Any possibility in bringing that back?

Keep up the great work!

Thanks for the compliment!

I'm not really keen on blue gun steel. Steel will rust and the bluing needs to be maintained. If you ever took blued firearms out in the rain, you know you need to wipe them down and oil them before storing them or you will get rust.
What I've been doing is chrome plating and nickel plating steel. Those are long lasting finishes that are much less maintenance for the end user.
And my NEW finish is the 24kt Gold. Also a low maintenace finish.

I could do blue gun steel - but it would require a clear coat over it to make me happy.

Is it possible to safely apply a chemical patina to cups using a torch?
Bronze sculptors have some interesting colors available but I wouldn't want to damage the cup in the process.

Yes sir it is.
One word of warning: Don't do this to a chop cup. Heat damages magnets. Too much heat (say over 170 degrees F) for too long will completely kill a neodymium magnet and it is never coming back.

Earlier this year I baked a set of copper cups in my kitchen oven at 500 degrees F for about 30 minutes.
The results were amazing. The copper turned red and pink in about 20-15 minutes. Then they darkened up. I took them out of the over and took some pictures. The patina was a variety of reds, golds, blues, purples and of course browns.
It took no time at all, could be undone by just using a copper cleaner on the metal (if you didn't like the results and wanted to start over) and was easy. No chemicals, no solutions, just heat.

I've even considered offering this "forced patina" as a finish on the copper cups.

And there is no telling what some chemicals applied to the copper first will result in. You could apply ammonia, vinegar, even ketchup, to the copper surface first, and then bake them (or put a torch on them) and see what you get. Again, if you don't like the results, just clean the surface. It's just a tarnish.

In fairness, I used high speed polishing wheels and polishing compounds to restore the baked cups to a mirror finish, but you should be able to get back to the original finish by just cleaning and polishing them - if you don't like the results.

BTW, You are not going to melt the copper unless you can get the heat to over 1900 degrees F. I'm pretty sure you're not going to do that! Some shops use ovens, but we anneal the metals with torches when spinning, to make the metal more pliable. Brass, in particular, has to get very hot so it rolls evenly and doesn't crack. This is the primary reason that I can't make some combo cups in brass - the heat is so high, for an extended period of time, that it kills the magnet. You are not going to melt it.

I've posted this before, but here is the image of the baked copper cups.
These are Paul Fox Mini Cups, mirror polished and baked in a kitchen over for about 30 minutes at 500 degrees F:
Fans of patinized copper will appreciate the variety of color that is in the patina.


Actually the cup that is second from the left started with a satin finish (not a mirror finish).

O...M...G.... those are absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I think I know what I want for christmas

Those are soo nice looking. Good job sir!