I highly doubt you will have any success at preventing any tarnishing and discoloration with silicon bronze. Silicon Bronze is 97% copper (nominal) with the rest of the make up being manganese & silicon. By the time you get the finish the way you want it and apply wax to protect it, the exposure to the air and any humidity has already been enough to start the tarnishing/corrosion process on the surface.

In the end it is a high maintenance material for a customer to deal with to keep looking good.

I actually use a great deal of this bronze for guards, and my customers request it because it patina's so nicely, much nicer than brass ever will. That being said, the finish I use the most for bronze is an extra fine scotchbrite rub followed by 4000 grit polish cloth with a dab of semichrome compound. If your not ok with nature taking it's coarse afterwards you can clean the coating off with electroclean spray and quickly give it a coat of varnish to prolong the high luster.

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I actually use a great deal of this bronze for guards, and my customers request it because it patina's so nicely, much nicer than brass ever will. That being said, the finish I use the most for bronze is an extra fine scotchbrite rub followed by 4000 grit polish cloth with a dab of semichrome compound. If your not ok with nature taking it's coarse afterwards you can clean the coating off with electroclean spray and quickly give it a coat of varnish to prolong the high luster.

I appreciate the response and thank you for your knowledge and time spent answering my question. I have been finishing this with an extra fine scotchbrite pad for awhile and really enjoy the finish, will try using the polish cloth. I actually talked to someone at a bronze foundry and they said to try a varnish or a lacquer. I still am going to try aluminum bronze just to see what i think. I want the knives to keep a high luster look because i like it that way, and for those who buy the knives to just collect and show to friends. Evan

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I highly doubt you will have any success at preventing any tarnishing and discoloration with silicon bronze. Silicon Bronze is 97% copper (nominal) with the rest of the make up being manganese & silicon. By the time you get the finish the way you want it and apply wax to protect it, the exposure to the air and any humidity has already been enough to start the tarnishing/corrosion process on the surface.

In the end it is a high maintenance material for a customer to deal with to keep looking good.

Thank you for the response and input, just kinda getting a bearing on the feel and look of bronze since i have not used it as much as brass in the past. I understand the composition and that it will tarnish over time, just wanted to see if anything really helped or not with the overall process. I agree it is high maintenance from what i am seeing, and i am just gonna try some aluminum bronze and see how it works for me also. Wanting to preserve the gold look for anyone who collects knives, and because i enjoy the nice color of bronze. Evan

Short of touching it up on the buffer like I do for my personal knife, I usually recommend clients use a cloth with a bit of autosol metal polish to remove any tarnish or oxidation that shows up on the blade or guard. Autosol is made in Germany, works better than any other polish of that sort I've personally tried, and a $9 tube has lasted me 6-7 years so far