Featured What were they covering cast pieces with?

I bought these two patches almost a year ago, but set them aside til I felt like stripping them.
...Long story short, I never got around to feeling like stripping them

Last week my oldest son fixed a sand blaster that came woth a shop my husband's family bought, and I began hunting around for interesting things to blast..

Enter these latches..

Prior to blasting they seemed to have been brass (you can see the brassy color along the curved edge, even the latch piece is faux brassed), so it was much to my surprise to find out they were cast iron..

What type of finish did they put on these to give them a brass type finish?




For fun, I'm going to also throw in a picture of a door knob I blasted then powder coated (and have since blasted back off bc I might do them a glossy black)
...but I was also surprised to see what was under all that rust.

 

They all came out beautiful!!!!

 

They used to call it "white metal". No idea what the metal content really was, or if they knew either. Probably mainly nickel.

 

the latches are stunning......
maybe u could sand blast me , a little !

 

Love the Eastlake latches.

 

Better than a face lift. Nicely done.

 

The two likely options would be a form of plating, or a lacquer containing something like powdered brass.