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Q&As since 1989
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RE SURFACING HURRICANE LAMPS
I have a set of brass hurricane lamps that sat on our piano at home, I am sure they are at least 60 years old, I found them in my parents basement, can I just spray them with gold paint? Thank you
DEE BANNONTRAVEL AGENT - VERO BEACH, FLORIDA
2006
First of two simultaneous responses -- 2006
Hello Dee,
I guess I'm partial on restoring metal to it's natural state. If the brass is not badly pitted try polishing with
Brasso
[on
eBay or
Amazon]. If that won't clean them up you can use a dampened medium grit scotch-brite pad, cut into 3" squares, dip into
Pumice
[affil links]
and rub until clean and shiny. Rinse often with warm water. Then a top coat polish using Brasso. This way you can say you have brass hurricane lamps, instead of gold painted brass hurricane lamps. Good luck!
process engineer - Malone, New York
Second of two simultaneous responses --
Probably not - there is either corrosion on the parts that will cause you adhesion issues, or a lacquer that will cause you adhesion issues, or a combination of both.
Use the search engine to look through the archived letters for subjects on how to clean brass - some of the letters will also address how to paint it, but just cleaning is probably what you want to do.
Good luck!
Compton, California, USA
2006
2006
Just a word about the Brasso suggestion: It's regarded as a very bad move indeed by professional restorers to use Brasso, or any similar chemicals, on old brass items. Brasso contains ammoniacal substances that can leave microscopic residues which slowly eat away at the metal over time. You might like to check out the archives at the Lamp Guild's website on the subject of restoring old lamps;
http://www.lampguild.org/Default.html?Defaulttext.shtml&1 ⇩
If you must use an abrasive, could I suggest the finest grade of #0000 steel wool [on
eBay or
Amazon] (looks like grey cotton-wool) only. Or you could try a solution of salt in vinegar
[in bulk on
eBay or
Amazon]. This works very well on copper, and might remove patina from brass
(but wash off thoroughly with clean water afterwards).
- Brampton, Cumbria, UK
[Ed. note: The above site is broken; thankfully, Archive.org's wonderful Wayback Machine saved a copy 
]
A. Thanks Mick. That link is interesting! But I think I'd rephrase it that Brasso is regarded as a very bad move by SOME professional restorers. Actually, our warning is that although vinegar and salt is very mild for people, it's extremely aggressive to brass, often turns it salmony (which is fixable) but sometimes removes very fine detail.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
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