We stock hardware in eight finishes: Blue Zinc, White Zinc, Navrang Zinc, Nickle, Brass, Rose Gold, Black and Antique. On a swatch they are eight colours. In service they are two different things — coatings that protect the steel underneath, and coatings that decorate it — and specifying one when you needed the other is one of the most common reasons hardware fails early. This note explains what each finish is, how much protection it gives, how the standards measure it, and why South East Queensland is a harder environment for plated steel than most people assume.
Almost all plated hardware is mild steel with a metallic coating deposited on it, usually by electroplating. The coating is thin: a few microns to perhaps twenty-five, which is less than the thickness of a sheet of paper. It changes the colour and it changes how the surface resists corrosion, but the part underneath is still mild steel. Scratch through the coating and the steel is exposed.
Two things follow. First, a plated finish is not stainless steel, however bright it looks. Second, finishes divide by how they behave once scratched: sacrificial coatings keep protecting the steel around the scratch, barrier coatings do not.
The standards put numbers on it. Electroplated zinc is specified to AS/NZS 1789, which adopts the international standard ISO 2081. Both use the same ladder of coating grades, and so does the American ASTM B633:
| Grade | Minimum local thickness | Service condition |
|---|---|---|
| Fe/Zn 5 | 5 µm | Mild — ISO 2081 recommends it “only for dry, indoor conditions” |
| Fe/Zn 8 | 8 µm | Moderate — typically indoor with some condensation |
| Fe/Zn 12 | 12 µm | Severe — typically exterior, sheltered |
| Fe/Zn 25 | 25 µm | Very severe — typically exterior, exposed |
Two lessons. The grade matters more than the colour: a bright zinc finish at 5 microns and the same finish at 25 microns look identical on the shelf and last very differently outdoors. And the grade is something you can specify. If a job needs Fe/Zn 12 or Fe/Zn 25, say so and we quote to it; if the specification only says “zinc plated”, assume the lower end of the range and treat it as an interior finish.
Zinc is the workhorse finish for a reason. It is sacrificial — electrochemically, zinc corrodes in preference to steel, so a scratched zinc-plated screw still protects the steel at the edges of the scratch. The zinc is then passivated, a chemical conversion layer that slows the zinc’s own corrosion (the “white rust” you see on weathered zinc). The passivate is what gives the different zinc finishes their look.
All three are interior and sheltered-exterior finishes. None of them is a coastal finish.
Brisbane does not feel like a corrosive city. The standards disagree. On the AS 4312 corrosivity map, as summarised by the Galvanizers Association of Australia, metropolitan Brisbane and the Gold Coast sit in category C3, “coastal” — the same band as Sydney and Perth. Surf suburbs are worse: the first 200 metres back from a surf beach is C5, and the band from there to about a kilometre inland is C4. Only a handful of bayside suburbs on quiet water, and inland centres like Toowoomba, drop to C2.
Three local facts make the categories bite. The Bureau of Meteorology’s Brisbane station averages 1,056 mm of rain over 127 rain days a year, with relative humidity of 63 per cent at 9am and 52 per cent at 3pm — surfaces stay wet longer here than in a temperate city, and time of wetness is what corrodes plated steel. Second, chloride does not only come from the sea: Roy Morgan found 19 per cent of Brisbane residents and 24 per cent of regional Queenslanders live in a house with a pool or spa, against 14 per cent nationally, so a large share of external hardware in this state sits within metres of chlorinated, splashing water. Third, the build volume: the ABS counted 205,249 dwelling approvals nationally in 2025–26, and in Queensland the fittings going into those houses are overwhelmingly plated mild steel. Most of it is indoors and fine. The failures are the fittings on the pool gate, the garage side door and the outdoor kitchen, specified by colour.
Nickel (listed as Nickle in our range) is a bright, hard, slightly warm silver. It is a barrier coating: it protects the steel only while it is intact. Scratch it and the steel beneath rusts, and the rust can creep under the nickel at the edge. That makes it a decorative, interior finish — excellent on cabinet and furniture hardware that is handled and looked at, poor on anything exposed to weather or abrasion.
Brass-plated hardware is steel with a thin brass-coloured deposit, often sealed with a clear lacquer to stop it tarnishing. It is not solid brass, and it does not behave like solid brass: the lacquer is what you are relying on, and once it wears through the finish dulls and the steel underneath is exposed. Rose Gold is a copper-toned decorative deposit, in the same class.
Both are interior finishes for pieces where appearance is the point: handles, knobs, exposed hinge knuckles, trim screws that have to match a fitting. Keep them dry and out of the sun.
Black on steel hardware is usually one of two things: black-passivated zinc, which is zinc plating with a black conversion layer and carries zinc’s sacrificial protection, or black oxide, a very thin chemical conversion of the steel surface that offers little corrosion resistance on its own and relies on an oil or wax. They look similar on the shelf and behave very differently in service. If a black fixing is going anywhere damp, ask which it is.
Antique is a deliberately darkened, aged-looking finish, typically produced by chemically toning a brass or zinc plate and then lacquering it. It is decorative; treat it as you would Brass.
| Finish | What it is | Protects steel when scratched? | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Zinc | Zinc plate, clear/blue passivate | Yes (sacrificial) | Interior and sheltered exterior; general fixings |
| White Zinc | Zinc plate, clear/white passivate | Yes (sacrificial) | As Blue Zinc, flatter tone |
| Navrang Zinc | Zinc plate, iridescent passivate | Yes (sacrificial, best of the three) | Zinc-plated fixings that will see moisture |
| Nickle | Nickel barrier plate | No | Interior decorative: cabinet and furniture hardware |
| Brass | Brass-coloured deposit, lacquered | No | Interior decorative; must match a brass fitting |
| Rose Gold | Copper-toned deposit, lacquered | No | Interior decorative |
| Black | Black zinc or black oxide — ask | Zinc: yes. Oxide: no | Interior; damp areas only if black zinc |
| Antique | Toned and lacquered plate | No | Interior decorative |
A hinge or handle in one finish with screws in another is the detail that makes a good installation look careless. Every screw line we stock can be specified in any of the eight finishes — it is one of the three choices, with head style and thread, that define a line — so order the fixings in the same finish as the fitting, and order them at the same time so they come from the same plating batch. Finishes drift slightly between batches, and the drift shows most in the decorative ones.
No finish on this page replaces stainless steel where salt, pool chemicals or constant wet are involved. If the hardware is going outdoors in a C4 or C5 zone — and in South East Queensland that is most of the coast — start with the coastal Queensland note and choose the grade first; choose the finish second.
The eight finishes, with the head and thread options they combine with, are shown in the customise section of the range on the home page. If a project needs a consistent finish across screws, hinges and fittings, send us the schedule and we will quote it as one batch.