How Do I Clean Brass?

A. Friends throw away your nasty flour, salt and water. There is a product out there that will do the job. Non abrasive, non toxic and non smelly. It's cheap, mess free and oh sooooo easy. It'll clean badly tarnished brass and copper in minutes. It's called Barkeepers Friend [on eBay or Amazon]. A white powder that dissolves in water. Just use a cloth or sponge, slightly wetter that damp, sprinkle some magic powder on the item to be cleaned, just a little, and rub gently. Rinse in clean water and buff with a dry cloth, or you can use a little metal polish. It's truly amazing.
I have just refurbished a brass bed, a lot of brass. One end took a whole week, and then it was far from perfect. When I used Barkeepers Friend I completed the other end in two days. Including stripping the old lacquer, cleaning all the brass, applying new lacquer and re-assembling.
Give it a try!

Microcrystalline
Museum Waxes

on eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

Brass Lacquers

on eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hi Gerhard. Brass tarnishes -- that's the way it is. For indoors you can use museum wax, and re-do it every few months, or brass lacquer and re-do it every few years. If the brass is outdoors the lacquer will probably only last a year or two. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Well, you have described precisely what brass does. It tarnishes. Unfortunately, brass is a very reactive alloy and it doesn't take much to ruin the polished surface you create by polishing with Brasso. The only way to protect the coating is to lacquer it with a good organic coating. You can experiment with store bought aerosol cans but I doubt you will get an acceptable finish with those. My advice is to remove the hand railing and take it to a custom finisher in your area who will buff the brass and apply a protective coating with professional spray painting equipment. I have finished brass bed railings with this method and it works very well. It isn't cheap by any means but you get what you pay for. Good luck.

A. This note is probably too late for your application but it worthwhile for future use by others with the same situation. Brass will tarnish unless the surface is sealed with some sort of coating. Handrail does not lend itself to lacquer coatings unless it is little used. Normal wear and tear from rings and traffic will cause the lacquer to chip or wear away. Once this occurs, the exposed area will tarnish and you will not be able to make spot repairs (without looking shoddy). The whole unit will need to be removed and sent out to be stripped and re-lacquered.

The best option for handrail is to apply a wax coating. Any good paste wax will do. Many railing installers actually use car wax (i.e. Turtlewax liquid car polish [affil links] ). This will still require that the handrail be buffed to remove fingerprints but, if the wax wears away and the material tarnishes, you simply use Brasso to remove the tarnish and rewax.

The best way to avoid fingerprints is to not use a brass handrail with a "mirror finish". This high polish finish -- which everyone seems to love -- will show imperfections and fingerprints. It is the "nature of the animal".

Tony

A. Hi Elham. If vapor degreasing is permitted in your area, it will usually remove all wax quickly and easily. Then proceed with your hot cleaning and electrocleaning. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Elham,

Not sure what the temperature of your hot cleaning is, but usually for polishing residue, a temperature of nearly boiling is required to remove it. There are also proprietary compound removers that may be available in your area that will be more effective than a standard brass cleaner. Good Luck!

A. You have a couple of good ideas to follow up on; however, if high heat is a problem you might want to look at ultrasonic cleaning at lower temperatures