Copper and brass are specified for bar tops, splashbacks and feature surfaces because they age rather than wear, developing a patina that most finishes cannot imitate. They are the wrong material for a food preparation surface. The choice between lacquered and unlacquered decides whether the surface stays bright or changes from day one.
What Is a Living Finish?
One designed to change. Unlacquered brass begins oxidising immediately and moves through a warm gold to a deeper bronze over months, depending on how often it is touched. Copper does the same with a redder starting point and a green verdigris where moisture sits. Neither is a defect. Both are the reason people choose the material.
Lacquered or Unlacquered?
Unlacquered
- Changes from day one
- Wears evenly across the piece
- Refinishable on site
- Needs a patina expectation set with the client
Lacquered
- Stays bright until the coating wears
- Will wear unevenly in a busy bar
- Recoating is a maintenance item
- Predictable at handover
How Is the Patina Controlled?
By handling and by sealing. A wax or a clear seal slows the change; leaving it bare accelerates it. Where a specific appearance is wanted at handover, the surface can be aged before installation rather than after, which is the only way to get uniformity across several pieces.
Where Should These Metals Not Be Used?
Direct food preparation. Copper reacts with acidic food, and unsealed brass is not a food contact surface. They belong on bar tops and beverage counters, splashbacks behind a back bar, feature cladding, tap towers and range hoods where nothing acidic rests on them.
Our stainless steel bar tops and beverage counters guide covers the stainless equivalent for working surfaces, and the food grade stainless steel guide explains what is suitable for direct contact.
Copper and brass belong in the room. They just do not belong on the prep bench.
How Do They Compare With Stainless?
Copper and brass cost more per square metre in material and demand more attention to stay as intended. Stainless does neither. The trade is appearance against maintenance, and it is worth being explicit with a client who is choosing on a photograph.
As an accent against stainless rather than a replacement for it, which is how they are normally specified. See our commercial kitchen splashback comparison for where stainless is the right answer, the stainless steel finishes guide for how the two metals sit together, and the outdoor BBQ kitchen guide for alfresco applications where copper weathers hardest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will brass stay the colour of the sample?
Only if it is lacquered, and the coating will wear. Unlacquered brass will move toward a deeper bronze.
Can copper be sealed to stop patina?
Yes, with a clear seal, which slows it rather than stopping it and needs recoating.
Is verdigris harmful?
It is a surface compound. It is not wanted on a food surface, which is why these metals stay off preparation areas.
Can you match an existing aged piece?
Usually, by ageing new work before install rather than after.
Is copper suitable outdoors?
It weathers quickly and unevenly. It needs a design intent that accepts that.
Can brass be used behind a cook line?
Not as a food contact or grease contact surface.
Book a Site Measure
Brass and copper work is fabricated to the room like any other stainless job, and the finish decision is made at the measure. We fabricate at our Burpengary East workshop. Call 07 3888 7534 or see our custom metalwork page.
Brass and Copper Fabrication
Bar tops, splashbacks and feature surfaces, fabricated at our Burpengary East workshop.