HOME FAQs BOOKS JOBS: Help Wanted Suggestions you are here: Hotline/Forum => Letter 17880
What to do when brass lamps start to get black spots
++
I have 2 Stiffel Lamps and they are starting to get black spots on the sides .I have no idea why this is happening. I don't dust them often, but when I do it's with a soft clean cloth and I don't use polishes . We bought them 2 yrs ago at a Stiffel Lamp store. Could you please tell me what I can do with this blackening on this lamps. Should I take the lamps to a jeweler and have them refinished ?
Thank You,
Laura S [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]- Michigan City, IN, USA
++
We'd like to help, but unless someone is an engineer for the manufacturer in question, it is very difficult to even guess what a finish is these days, let alone suggest how to fix it. We don't know the substrate (brass, steel, zinc), we don't know the finish (brass plating, electrophoretic lacquer on nickel plating, vacuum finish with zirconium nitride or something on nickel plating), and we don't know what the black spots really look like.
So, how are we going to figure out what the finish is? Any further info available, Ms. Sischo? Thanks.
|
 Ted Mooney, P.E. finishing.com Brick, New Jersey |
+++
Stiffel lamps are brass plated.The black spots are oxidation and pitting. The only way to remove it is to refinish the lamp.
John Diday- Palm Harbor, Florida
++++
If all Stiffel lamps are brass plated, what is under the brass, and will my brass cleaner hurt whatever it is? No magnet will stick to the lamp and it seems to have a silverish color underneath the brass in spots. Thank you for any advice and I hope this is the correct forum for my question..
Lori F [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]- Damariscotta, Maine, USA
+++++
I understand that Stiffel "brass" lamps were plated brass over zinc, white metal, "pot metal", or some such. Clearly non-ferrous. Doesn't matter: your options are limited to accepting the degraded finish or refinishing.
The recommendation on some lamp stickers not to polish the lamps is a good one. I didn't know and when my initial attempts to improve a spotted finish didn't work, I just polished harder! Refinishing is what I intend to do, if not too dear.
I am getting quotes for refinishing of two lamps. Any suggestions from folks who have done this?
Thanks,
Jim Garfo- Kennett Square, Pennsylvania