Removing tarnish on brass, copper, bronze

Hi, Carole. Ling is usually right and is probably right this time. But I'm guessing that you're a consumer looking for a commercially available spray or polish to remove tarnish from your household items, rather than a formula according to which you would blend together the acids and agents that he mentions.

There are many copper/brass polishes. The very slowest acting ones like Brasso [linked by editor to product info at Amazon] leave the item the warmest and richest. The very fastest working, like vinegar plus salt (lemon juice plus salt, ketchup, hot sauce), leave the item orange and raw looking, and can damage really fine detail.

The compromise that I personally use is Revere Copper & Stainless Cleaner =>
It works very fast and easy while leaving what I consider a reasonably nice shine.

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Regards,

Revere copper cleaner

 
Sara Michaeli
    chemical process supplier
Israel

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I would like to clean some copper contacts and connectors. Polishing is not practical. What can I soak then in to remove tarnishing and corrosion?

Hi, Trom. To bright dip copper you need a solution that contains an oxidizing acid. Nitric acid is pretty nasty stuff, so I'd suggest you go with sulfuric acid + Hydrogen Peroxide [linked by editor to product info at Amazon] instead. This is available as a proprietary which contains stabilizers so the peroxide doesn't wastefully decompose too fast. A local plating supply house will understand what you are looking for. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Hello everyone. I know everyone has asked over and over again how to remove the heavy tarnish from brass, but with no real answers that have proved effective. Well now I am going to tell everyone the secret of the pros, and how to do it in three easy steps.

First of all, you need to remove the heavy black staining that is preventing you from getting to the brass to polish it. To do this, you apply Naval Jelly [linked by editor to product info at Amazon] =>
to the brass with a brush. Let it sit on the brass for 5 to 10 minutes, and then scrub off with a toothbrush or a sponge. If it is heavily, heavily tarnished, you might need 2 coats.

Second thing is to fire up the buffing wheel, and then rub a tripoli [link to product info at Amazon by ed.] block on it. Once a little of the tripoli has rubbed off on the buffing wheel, start buffing out all the scratches and scuffs, quickly bringing the brass to a shine.

The final thing to do once you have done the pre polish with the tripoli, is rub a little "Red Rouge" [jeweler's rouge [linked by editor to product info at Amazon]] on the buffing wheel, and then shine your brass up on the wheel with it, to whatever degree of luster you desire.

If you don't have a buffing wheel, you can repeat the entire process, but with using "tripoli", and "Red Rouge" in powder form, and rubbing by hand.

I was about to pull my hair out when I couldn't get a brass fan blade on an antique fan to look even somewhat presentable with brasso. I was lucky enough to get the local silversmith to tell me exactly what he and every other silver plater, and silversmith uses to get brass to a mirror shine. My black corroded brass fan blade looked like a mirror after about 20 minutes, following this exact procedure.

As far as the products needed. Make sure the Naval Jelly is the pink kind. It will literally melt the black tarnish away with almost no effort whatsoever from you to remove it within 5 to 10 minutes. A buffer wheel is no more than a desk top grinder with a buffing pad applied to one side. You can even have buffing pads on both sides: 1 for the tripoli, and 1 for the red rouge, if you plan on buffing a lot of brass. The tripoli and red rouge can easily and readily be found on ebay for under $20 =>
So, you wanted to know, and now you do!

Hi, Allan.

The easy way is with a strong brass and copper polish like Revere Copper & Stainless Cleaner =>

If this doesn't give enough shine, you will probably have to buff them with a buffing pad on a Dremel tool, a rechargeable drill, or an actual buffing machine. For the buffing compound you can certainly try the aforementioned copper polish, but you may need to move on on a real buffing compound. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Revere copper cleaner