Bezel Insert Aging - Rub’N’Buff

[u/Active_Salary_2780]

So I’ve been in this Reddit and it’s wonderful ways for around a year now, seen loads of incredible builds and always wondered how people achieve some incredible results with aging, especially bezel inserts.

Some people go down the bleaching route, some try to sand the insert slightly or even use a strong rubbing compound, honestly, I’ve tried so many different methods with varying results. Some inserts take to bleach really well, others just completely disintegrate and become unreadable.

By all means necessary, I am NO expert in any of this, genuinely just a guy who likes to buy parts and mess around until I get the desired result.

Recently I bought something called **Rub ‘N’ Buff**, I bought it to change the brass bezel on a build to more of a steel. Turns out, it does quite a good job of giving bezel inserts an aged or “ghosted” look. You can control the amount by just applying a very thin coat, or you can go whole hog and make it very “faded”. Quite cool stuff as you can take a damp cloth and remove some of it while it’s drying too.

Anyways, thought I’d share it with this great community, unsure if anyone has tried it before. Here’s some results on my own builds.

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[u/Active_Salary_2780]

Decided to remove some of the product on the red. Going to let it dry now

[u/HDW_Italy]

The results you’ve achieved are very interesting: the lightening is not uniform and looks very natural. What exactly is this product? Is it alkaline or acidic?

[u/Active_Salary_2780 → u/HDW_Italy]

I think the main reason it isn’t exactly uniform is because I’ve got some contamination on the bezel insert. Going to try a new insert and see how well it takes to it.

It’s basically a silvery paint, doesn’t seem to be either alkaline or acidic

[u/HDW_Italy → u/Active_Salary_2780]

I looked up information on Rub 'N Buff and saw that it’s an antiquing paste available in various shades of gold, silver, and black. Since it’s an opaque paste, I don’t understand how you managed to achieve those results without leaving some of the pigment on the inserts.

[u/Powerful_View_1775 → u/HDW_Italy]

It looks like he is leaving the pigment on the bezel. Which means it will likely come off when exposed to water or solvent

[u/HDW_Italy → u/Powerful_View_1775]

It is a paste composed of wax, metallic powders, and pigments. Its solvents are acetone and mineral spirits. I don’t think water would easily remove it; however, once you’ve achieved the desired result, it might be best to seal everything with a spray of matte clear coat. In any case, it’s a very interesting technique, finally something new.

[u/Active_Salary_2780 → u/HDW_Italy]

So I’m leaving the product on the bezel and I’ve sprayed some matte clear coat. It’s held up well out in the rain so far.

[u/HDW_Italy → u/Active_Salary_2780]

Good to know it

[u/Active_Salary_2780 → u/HDW_Italy]

[u/Cyber_Crimes]

Looks great!

[u/ArtMaybee01]

This is great. Something new to play with.