Last year I created a bronze chalice. It was designed for wine but bronze and wine do not go well together because of the copper content.
There are several reasons given for the downfall of the Roman Empire ranging from outsourcing their army to decadence behavior of the ruling class. Very few list plumbing as the root cause of decline but the end of the Roman Empire was a lead pipe cinch.
Lead piping lead to lead poisoning which lead to madness that lead to decadence for the ruling class who could afford plumbing, which lead to decline and rats in the Coliseum.
Roman bronze contained lead and even sometime mercury and added to the overall poisoning of the greatest people, the greatest nation. Nothing like us has ever been.
Modern bronze is made of nine parts copper to one part tin. "Because copper is a fairly inert metal, allergic reactions to copper occurs usually when the metal forms compounds with atmospheric pollutants. Symptoms are less attributable to copper but more to this copper containing new compound".
1"Copper Utensils with copper interiors should never be used for acidic foods, with pH of 6.0 or below, since toxic compounds can form if food is cooked, stored or served from such containers. Even if copper pans are lined with tin, they should not be used for acidic foods such as fruits, fruit juices, salad dressings, tomatoes, vinegar containing foods, etc. Copper bowls may be used for beating egg whites, or copper kettles for cooking high sugar foods like fudge, for these foods are alkaline. Utensils with copper on the bottom or outside, and stainless steel, aluminum, or a porcelain enamel interior finish are safe to use and conduct heat well".
2Even thou allergic reaction to copper is rare, taking mostly the form of reactions to copper contraceptive devices and in some extreme cases skin rash at mere contact with copper, acid reaction to copper in foods is a more serious problem because of the creation of toxins when copper is exposed to acid.
EXAMPLE: Nitric Acid + Copper
"Cu(s) + 4HNO3(aq) ——> Cu(NO3)2(aq) + 2NO2(g) + 2H2O(l)
Copper is oxidized by concentrated nitric acid, HNO3, to produce Cu2+ ions; the nitric acid is reduced to nitrogen dioxide, a poisonous brown gas with an irritating odor".
3Other acids produce other toxins. But whatever the toxin you do not want to ingest it with you food or wine. At the best case the taste will be effected. At the worst case you will be poisoning yourself.
All my research lead me to silver, which meant silver electro plating. I found a really cool and inexpensive way to do this with a kit from
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/plugnplate.htm
Once that was finished then I had another problem. How do you polish silver without poisoning yourself with the polish? I found a food safe polish at
http://www.metalwax.com.
So why am I telling you all this in a animation blog? Good question! This Thursday I am teaching a workshop in silver electro plating in my metal casting class.
