Polishing Brass
Karen Wheless
I have some brass that my mother left me. Unfortunately, it hasn't been
polished in many years, and it's very tarnished. I tried regular "brass
cleaner", and after rubbing vigorously for an hour, I had sore arms, but
the tray was still covered with tarnish with no end in sight. I've seen
the ads on television where they dip the tarnished item into a solution
and the tarnish just washes off. Does this work? Does anyone know a
brand name of this stuff? I know it's not good for long term use, but
these items are solid brass, and they'll stand harsh treatments once or
twice. I just want to get them back in decent shape so I can keep them
up by polishing more often. (Also, some of the trays and candlesticks
are quite big, so I'm not sure how I would soak them in solution as some
of the treatments suggest.) Thanks for any suggestions.
Karen
--
Karen Wheless
kwhe...@peachnet.campus.mci.net
Raincloud
I went through this a few years ago when I was on the Altar Guild of my
church. The women who had been maintaining the brass before me weren't
that knowledgeable and it was in wretched shape with corrosion. The
brass was from the 1920's through 1942 or so. The building has gas
heat. My husband says the sulfur in the methyl mecaptan that's added to
gas makes the brass tarnish fast. The building is quite old and
drafty. I wonder if the humidity affects the brass. For Christmas, the
women used cheap red candles with stearic acid and left the dripped wax
on for a year, which was bad for the brass. The 100% beeswax candles
seemed to do far less damage. They're expensive, though, and will bend
some in the summer heat here.
First, is the brass laquered? Removing candlewax with a knife often
removes the laquer. Using a brass cleaner on top of the laquer damages
the finish, too. You can't polish through the most likely damaged
laquer coating (which is what the women had been doing for years) and
need to remove it. You can use laquer thinner to remove it. It's very
flammable and should only be used out of doors. Wash the brass
afterwards with soap and water and dry immediately.
On candlewax: Sometimes candlewax can be removed by placing the
candlestick in the freezer and then just peeling it off. These
candlesticks were too big to do that. Sometimes you can disassemble the
little cups and saucers (there are more technical names for them, but I
forget what they're called) that hold the candles plus there were all
the cap thingies (flame tamers?) for the tops of the candles and place
them in boiling water, but I find that method extremely messy. It
seemed I always got some wax on the pieces anyway. In my opinion the
best method is to heat the wax with a hair blow dryer and wipe it off
with a trash rag or paper towels as it melts. My husband has a modified
hair dryer that is much hotter than usual because he uses it for
electical work. The Altar Guild fell in love with it due to the large
quantity of candleholders we had to polish. :)
Once the laquer was removed, the DH added a little cerium oxide, used
for polishing telescope mirrors, to the brasso. This might not be
necessary in your case, but was very helpful because of all the
corrosion.
He helped make some gizmos to hold the cups, saucers, and caps so I
could mount them on his drill press to polish. That made it go much
faster. Some of the large pieces I did by hand.
After this, the DH and I sprayed silicon spray on the brass, which
prevented it from tarnishing as fast. I assume your trays are for food,
so I wouldn't advise using it on them. It's possible to apply laquer
again. The brass was very intricate, though, and I wanted to find out
what the best coating would be, but we never got around to it.
Before the treatment, it took 16 woman hours to polish the brass. After
the treatment, it takes 6 hours. The silicon spray keeps it looking
good in between polishings (usually 2 or sometimes 3 times a year).
I do not recommend the chemical cleaners. Brass is an alloy and the
chemical cleaners act on different metals at different rates.
To have the brass reconditioned professionally was prohibitively
expensive. The treatment cost more than replacing with new
candlesticks! The church and Altar Guild were delighted.
///\oo/\\\ Ouch, the green envy bug bit me again! In my opinion, old
brass is so much more beautiful and intricate and exhibits finer
craftsmanship than the new stuff.
Enjoy your brass! :-)
Raincloud
Roz Cawley
In article <1997041816...@s17-pm03.athens.campus.mci.net>, Karen
Wheless <kwhe...@peachnet.campus.mci.net> writes
>I have some brass that my mother left me. Unfortunately, it hasn't been
>polished in many years, and it's very tarnished. I tried regular "brass
>cleaner", and after rubbing vigorously for an hour, I had sore arms, but
>the tray was still covered with tarnish with no end in sight. I've seen
>the ads on television where they dip the tarnished item into a solution
>and the tarnish just washes off. Does this work? Does anyone know a
>brand name of this stuff? I know it's not good for long term use, but
>these items are solid brass, and they'll stand harsh treatments once or
>twice. I just want to get them back in decent shape so I can keep them
>up by polishing more often. (Also, some of the trays and candlesticks
>are quite big, so I'm not sure how I would soak them in solution as some
>of the treatments suggest.) Thanks for any suggestions.
>
Karen - if you want to clean the brass yourself, you may care to try the
mixture which I use. Mix about a teaspoon of salt with a tablespoon of
lemon juice, then stir in enough flour to make a thick paste. the paste
can then be painted on at any angle - the flour makes it sticky, so it
doesn't matter how big the article is. I've cleaned old copper and brass
coal scuttles like this - a patch at a time. The mixture will clean
really heavy tarnish if left on long enough - just keep wiping off a bit
to see how its doing. Once the heavy tarnish has gone, polish with a
proprietry brass or copper polish. Good luck! (Olde English Recipe!)
--
Roz Cawley
Newbury, Berks, UK