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Green Residue During Cleaning of Brass Bed

Hello,

The antique brass bed that I slept in as a child spent 30 years in my mother's garage. As you can imagine, it got pretty tarnished. I dug it out recently and started cleaning it for my 6-year-old daughter (who calls it the "princess bed.") I was uncertain about the commercial cleaners, so I tried boiled linseed oil [affil links] followed by several applications of salt-and-vinegar paste. That got a lot of the tarnish off. Then, after some more research, I tried Simichrome [on eBay or Amazon] , which got off yet more tarnish.

Now there's a green residue in some of the intricate parts of the design, and I'm not sure 1) exactly what it is, and 2) how to get it off. I'm worried that it's corrosion caused by the salt and vinegar [in bulk on eBay or Amazon], which I might not have washed off thoroughly enough. What should I do? And what should I do to keep the bed in good shape from this point on? I'd like my daughter to be able to pass it down to her children some day.

Thanks very much for your help.

Hi, Jennifer. If the bed is magnetic, it's brass plated and the plating will have a limited life, so stop. If it's not magnetic, it's probably solid brass and you can keep going. Although vinegar plus salt is mild to people, it's exceptionally aggressive to brass -- far more so than commercial brass polishes. You should try to get rid of those acidic remnants by cleaning the recesses with Simichrome (or another polish) on Q-tip [affil links].

After the bed is the way you want it, you need to spray it with brass lacquer [on eBay or Amazon] to keep it from immediately tarnishing. Good luck.

Regards,

adv.

"Clearcoats/Lacquers for Brass from G.J. Nikolas"