Cleaning tarnish from brass fire extinguishers

A. I have found the best solution to clean brass and copper items is to soak them in a mixture of citric acid [on eBay or Amazon] and water overnight, and then clean with soapy fine steel wool [on eBay or Amazon]. The items then only need a final polish and sealing. Citric acid is quite cheap and is used in soft drink manufacture.

(I live on a saltwater bay & have stainless steel railings on a balcony which have needed continuous cleaning due to the salt air, and I have been looking for a suitable sealer which will resist the elements. I have found a product called "Nycote" [adv: Nycote on eBay]. I have no affiliation with this Company but it seems the ideal solutions for sealing all metals after finishing. As opposed to lacquer which breaks down quickly and needs to be completely stripped back, this product can be rubbed back and coated in the area of damage only.

Lacquer Thinner

on eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

Thanks Peter. Easy removability with lacquer thinner [on eBay or Amazon] is one of the advantages of brass lacquer [on eBay or Amazon] , but other clear coatings like Nycote and Everbrite [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] have their place too.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. I have cleaned the bottom of a large brass lamp with Wright's Copper Cream [on eBay or Amazon] and found that it does the work for the most part.

A. I restore a lot of brass, The vinegar [in bulk on eBay or Amazon] and salt does work ok. A friend of mine brought over some stuff called Zap Restorer [on eBay or Amazon] which did much better. When I checked the ingredients, I found that it contained sulfuric and hydrochloric acid. So I got some muriatic acid [on eBay or Amazon] (diluted hydrochloric) and tried it out. I found I still need to dilute it about 5 to one, but it does wonders. It may turn brass pink which I then fix by following up the acid treatment with an over the counter paste brass polish. I also use the steel wool [on eBay or Amazon] after the acid with excellent results.

Someone mentioned trying toilet bowl cleaner to clean pitted brass. I just tried using some toilet bowl cleaner [on eBay or Amazon] which contains hydrochloric acid. I used with gloves [on eBay or Amazon] on and elbow grease and it did a great job on my black and rust-colored spots on the brass. YEA! I'll follow with commercial brass cleaner and protectant spray.

I bought a copper plate today at a yard sale for $1.00, It was black, but I knew it would look great if I could get it clean. So I asked Jeeves and found this list of responses, all I can say is WOW, I used Salt and vinegar and with very little effort it worked like a charm.

Thanks everyone for you help.

A. I pastor a church that is several years old. When we first got started our funds were very limited and many of the chancel furnishings and accouterments were either donated or were used and bought for very little. Most of them hadn't been properly cared for and several items were 150-200 years old and very neglected. I did much of the work myself.

For the smaller items (vessels, processional cross tops, etc.) cleaning in soapy water, then soaking for 20-40 minutes in 1:2 white vinegar and water solution with a bit of salt did wonders. A little 00 steel wool [on eBay or Amazon] helped on the difficult spots followed by Brasso [on eBay or Amazon] and some wax [on eBay or Amazon] has kept everything in excellent shape.

A. Try this: To see if your item is solid brass and not just plated, use a refrigerator magnet. A magnet will not stick to brass. If a magnet DOES stick to your item, you probably have steel covered with brass plating. Don't use heavy duty polishing agents on brass plating, because the layer of brass is so thin that you'll just polish it away. If the magnet doesn't stick, you can do another test in an inconspicuous place: scratch the item with something sharp. If it's brass, you'll see bright yellow under your scratch. If you see white or silver, you probably have zinc or another metal plated with brass.

Have been trying to polish an old trombone; after trial & error & research here's what I've learned: A lot of brass has a lacquer finish on it. Brasso or other tarnish-removers won't clean through the lacquer. You first have to strip off the lacquer. This can be done with paint stripper or --easier-- hot water. I used a Scotch pad from Home Depot's paint dept. which was made for paint stripping [on eBay or Amazon] (equivalent to medium-fine steel wool). I would have used a finer pad [on eBay or Amazon] if I had it, for less scratching.

Once the lacquer is off, Brasso [on eBay or Amazon] works wonders. I've also heard that vinegar & salt works (use lots of salt, so much that it stops dissolving in the vinegar). If the lacquer is still on, you can polish all day and won't get anywhere. I'm no expert but this is what worked for me.

Thanks to all of you for giving me some really great ideas! I'd tried in vain this morning, to remove the dull tarnish from a small brass teapot I've just received as an heirloom. When I was a young girl I used to polish this same teapot to a bright brass finish, but I guess nobody else did that job after me. 40+ years of tarnish would not be removed by using Brasso or Nevr-dull wadding polish, so I turned to the Internet and found your suggestions.

I heated up 2 cups of apple cider vinegar in a bowl in the microwave, then added 8 big tablespoons of salt to it, and a few squirts of lemon juice for good measure. This worked like a charm! The teapot turned pink quickly as I sponged it all over with the warm solution. Then I used Brasso [on eBay or Amazon] to remove the pink, and as a last effort, used Nevr-dull [on eBay or Amazon] which is less messy, and now the teapot just gleams! Thank you my friends, for making my day as bright as this teapot!

A. My hand strength isn't good enough for extensive hand polishing so I used my Black and Decker Scumbuster [on eBay or Amazon] instead. It is less abrasive than using fine steel wool but I wouldn't use it on brass plating, just solid brass for a 1x polish to get years of tarnish off. I don't think I'd use a motorized tool like this regularly on an antique metal but for a 1x only job, I am doing well and it looks nice! (And I'd never get it polished otherwise!)

I'm using the hand polisher with a brass cleaner and wiping periodically. Right now the bed is together but I'm going to take it apart to make this easier. I'm so excited, the bed is a 1920's king with HUGE double balls at the head and foot board and the headboard is an enormous decorative piece. It's a great bed.

A. A remarkable cleaning product that you can use to remove heavy tarnish is called Flitz [adv: Flitz on eBay or Amazon] . They make several polishes and cleaners and this stuff is amazing. You can purchase the products direct from their website, or from Amazon.

This is the best stuff I have ever used.

I am cleaning brass hinges and door knobs in my older 1949 home. I found that a product called Barkeepers Friend [on eBay or Amazon] (similar to Zud [adv: Zud on eBay or Amazon] ) works with ease. Just rub with a sponge and water and it comes off nicely.

I am a Louisiana State Trooper, and all of our uniform brass comes with a heavy Lacquer on it. To remove it, all you need to do is put a heavy coat of Brasso [on eBay or Amazon] on it, light it on fire, and let it burn out. Then you will just wipe the lacquer off. You are still gonna need to use a little elbow grease, but it works. (wouldn't recommend this on large items). To polish the brass, we all agree that a Dremel [on eBay or Amazon] tool with a felt attachment works best. I use a paste called Maas metal polish [adv: Maas on eBay or Amazon] . It seems to be not as gritty as Flitz, which will scratch the surface of the brass. HOPE THIS HELPS YALL.

*I NEED A GOOD TIP ON HOW TO KEEP MY BRASS SHINY FOR MORE THAN A DAY. (TOO MUCH HUMIDITY!)

Hi, officer Bergeron. Thanks for the burn-off tip. You can try a light brass lacquer [on eBay or Amazon] designed to let brass shine for a reasonable period.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Hi, Laura. Turpentine [on eBay or Amazon] is not too strong for the brass, and it should not hurt it. But yes, turpentine is a bit harsh smelling, although 'toxin' is a very vague term.

Regards,

A. Hi, Maggie. Solvent type paint removers (as opposed to caustic paint strippers) should have no effect on brass. Aircraft Stripper is based on methylene chloride and is really noxious stuff, requiring goggles [on eBay or Amazon] and rubber gloves [on eBay or Amazon] and excellent ventilation, but it easily removes almost all paints with no effect on the metal. Good luck

Regards,

A. Hi, Rob. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. The zinc is highly soluble in the same mild acids that dissolve calcium scale, leaving the metal copper-rich or orange in color.

One answer, which may or may not suit your situation, is to send the parts to a plating shop, which will have the more powerful oxidizing acids, like nitric acid, which can also dissolve copper, keeping the tone better. They also will be able to do brass plating if you wish.

Have you tried buffing your "pink" parts back to brass color? Usually the discoloration is only skin deep and a power buffer and mildly abrasive polishing compound can bring back the brass color. But even before that, just try a commercial metal polish, and consult Goran Budija's excellent posting about ammonium citrate for restoring the yellow color.

Regards,

A Hi, Pete
If this is brass plated steel and the brass plating was damaged, it would need to be replated. There are companies who do small plating jobs in-situ with a brush plating outfit. But if the repair is not worth several hundred dollars to you, you would be limited to looking for a can of brass-tone paint that matches reasonably well.

Regards,

A. I am a firm believer in the less chemicals you have to use the better! I removed old lacquer easily off exterior light fixtures by using baking soda [on eBay or Amazon] and water by disassembling them and using a very large SS hot water bath canning pot and the following process:

"Make a mixture of Baking Soda and Water (1 Tablespoon of Soda to each Quart of Water) and bring to a boil.
While still boiling, immerse the item. One half at a time if your pot of solution is not large enough to immerse the item completely.
After about 15 minutes of boiling, the coating will peel and lift off. Remove from the solution and wash with hot water. (Remember to protect your hands from hot surfaces.)
Use acetone [on eBay or Amazon] (or non-oily nail polish remover) on a cotton or wool pad to remove any remaining stubborn coating."

Then, I removed all the hard crusty tarnish (looked almost like rust it was so badly oxidized) and darkened tarnish by immersing the exterior brass light fixtures in this solution: 2 t. citric acid [on eBay or Amazon] to 1 qt. boiling water. Stir it around a little. I used 2 qty. Rhodes American grade #0000 [on eBay or Amazon] pads to wipe away any heavily tarnished residue. Do not use coarser steel pads as they will scratch the brass; grade "#OOOO" will not. My light fixtures were highly polished brass light fixtures--20 years old and 20 years of tarnish. These methods works so well and removed the tarnish so easily. I cannot tell you how many different kinds of commercial cleaners and how much money I spent on them prior to trying this. Nothing worked like this.

I did have some pinkish brass areas, that was probably due to the copper/zinc metals that brass is made from. I have read online that Wrights Brass Polish [on eBay or Amazon] will remove the pink discoloration and ordered some from Amazon. I looked everywhere (big box stores, groc. stores, Walmart, etc.) for it locally, but no one carried it, so save yourself the time and just order it. Also, you can get the "citric acid" in health food type grocery stores. I used "Dowd Rogers citric acid" that I bought at "Good Earth" health food store for $5. I used 1/2 can on three large brass light fixtures. FYI, citric acid is used in canning pickles, tomatoes, and sprouting, so it's a food item. NOTHING works like this, and this method is good for your brass. It conditions the brass and keeps tarnish away.

Wished I'd known about this years ago! Here's the forum where I found out about this amazing brass cleaner:
castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?83572-Citric-acid-brass-cleaner

You will be amazed at how easy this is...
Have a safe great day!