Anyway to 'encourage' a patina?

I've had my ohana sk25 for a year now, and i want it to hurry up and look old.
I can't be bothered to 'relic' it, but can a regimen of 'simulated use' be taken over a long period?
For instance, oils and sweat from fingertips, would wiping that onto the top do much (after a while)? I noticed when i fingerpick my pinkie rests on the soundboard, what if every time i'm holding my uke i do some furious finger rubbing on that spot, eventually making a noticeable mark, etc?
How does a patina chemically happen anyway?
lemon juice? (although preferably not so drastic)
matt finish if that helps (seems to be kinda thick)

'DUURRRRRR just play it and wait 15 years.'
Not helpful.

Fake aging, eh? Like those pre-aged jeans or the pre-battered electric guitars. "Relics" for people with too short an attention span to wait for the real thing to happen.

Do it right: play it until it happens. Don't try to fake authenticity. You won't fool anyone.

You want artificial patina or fake distressing..or both....hmmm can I ask what the reasoning behind that?? hmm I seem to like my ukes looking new...unless I look at my vintage ones...
have you thought of getting a vintage martin??they sound really good too...

Yup, only one best way to get that vintage look................ahhhhh, you know what I'm goin to say, dont ya?

Yup, buy a vintage uke!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take it to the beach, and beat it on a big rock. That outta do it..

Take it sailing across the Alantic. If ya cant do that, play it allot in the salt air on the beach and don't clean it up..

Or, send it to me, and I promise to play it every say, and send it back to ya in March of 2021.

Ohana isn't even an old company, why would you want to age it?

I'd recommend just buying a used uke that fits your needs.

With the poly finishes on the MIC ukes, they won't likely age like the old fashioned Nitro finishes. In our uke club there is a guy who works with ceramics all day and takes his uke to work. He has worn a spot where he often places his thumb on the neck. That's the most vintaging I've seen on the modern ukes, and that was after a few years of playing it regularly.

Hmmmm what a fickle creature the human being is!,

A patina is not so much a chemical action, though oxidation does play a part in the gradual breakdown of the surface on lacquered surfaces. Patina is actually created by very small scratches in the surface which results in minute disturbances in the refraction of light. And the finer the scratches, the finer the patina, this is why it is difficult to fake. And the scrathciing is caused by wiping off dust, that microscopic gift from the cosmos that constantly bombards Earth and is evident in your vacumn cleaner bag....so if you can figure a way to sand blast your uke with dust, you'll be off to a good start for a super fine patina. However if you have the patience, try using a good quality clothes brush with natural bristles on a daily basis to buff up your uke or I suppose a good quality shoe brush, you are looking for softness rather than stiffness.

Finger grease will not so much help create a patina as actually dissolve the lacquer, and once the lacquer is removed the grease will build up as an icky sticky gunge causing discolouration rather than patina.

Cheers

Loan it to me for a couple of months.

ok, I am not kidding when I say this, but...if you want to patina metal, the best thing is horse pee
Take it off the intrument first, duh, but the high concentation of uria will "Patina the metals

Never tried it, I just know some "Antique" dealers, if you know what I mean.

You use sulphurated potash or "Liver of sulphur" dissolved in water, it just smells like horse pee and is a lot faster. You also need to heat the metal. That's for various stages of brown through black, working best of bronze and copper based metals. Ferric nitrate is for reddish tones, cupric nitrate for greens. Don't breathe the fumes, it's not good for your lungs or health. These are all oxidizers.

I wouldn't get any of this near any of my ukes. I just used to be a bronze sculptor so am familiar with the art of patinas.

Teek said:

You use sulphurated potash or "Liver of sulphur" dissolved in water, it just smells like horse pee and is a lot faster. You also need to heat the metal. That's for various stages of brown through black, working best of bronze and copper based metals. Ferric nitrate is for reddish tones, cupric nitrate for greens. Don't breathe the fumes, it's not good for your lungs or health. These are all oxidizers.

I wouldn't get any of this near any of my ukes. I just used to be a bronze sculptor so am familiar with the art of patinas.

Click to expand...

For the reds, we used to just chuck some steel wool in a jar full of water and leave it there. Once it was all nice and rusty, we'd heat up the bronze, brush this stuff on, then wax! *grin*
MUCH safer!

If it has a gloss finish, you can freeze it and take it immediately into a heated room. That will usually check the finish. I don't recommend this.

Just play more and take your uke everywhere you go. The more you play, the more wear you will see. Faking it is never as satisfying as the real thing.