antique whistle age

patina is always an interesting subject, I guess because it is so subjective 🙂

Watching on eBay there has been a run of whistles by a seller lising them as 'superb' and they are all cleaned and shiney and polished up.

They also have been very slow to sell. — Why ???

Perhaps because in the antique business people want age. However in many antiques dents and scratches are acceptable. Whistles are more like old coins though, we want them old but not worn.

Oh well, want, want, want. In the end just not polished up. Polish off all that patina and mostly the whistle is ruined. The exception being if you have to repair it, then you pretty much have to start over and hope the patina catches up quickly 🙂

Favorites ??

nickel silver when it has that silver, but shightly yellowish and cloudy look.

Copper. dark brown but without any green corrosion ( verdigree might be acceptible)

brass, dark brown but dark golden is great too

silver, dark grey

chrome — none

nickle plated over brass–tough one. Not much of a patina, but I will take what I can get ???

Then there is wood, horn, hoof, etc. love that old oiled, darkened, look and feel after the color has changed hue from fresh and shiney to faded and old starting at about 100 years old !!!

even the word patina sounds better huh ??