How to clean brass?

Marie

I found a couple ideas for you

https://mamaneedsaproject.com/3-ways-to-clean-rusty-antique-drawer-pulls/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_yUKEAnEOE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohy7Vj2RLeA

Marie

Brasso is a product that has been around for years and works well on brass cleaning too. You can find it at Walmart, usually the grocery store and also in stores like Home Depot, etc

Hi Marie, I've used baking soda in very hot water to clean old brass. I use about 1/2 cup of baking soda to 1 gallon of HOT water. Just soak the brass pieces in the mixture and then scrub gently with an old toothbrush. Rinse and dry and your pieces should look a LOT better.

check this out: https://www.hometalk.com/diy/clean/house/ketchup-brass-polish-18476842

I've used Brasso, which you should be able to find at the grocery or hardware store. That stuff works great

Wash item with soapy water, rinse & dry. Apply slurry paste of lemon juice & table salt. Should show immediate results.

Brasso is the best for this! At any hardware store.

Remove and put in a crock pot of white vinegar. You will have to toss the pot afterwards.

leave on and plush with ketchup to clean.

Perhaps this video will help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4bojuP9HCk

Is it real brass?

If they are brass and look like real brass chances are they have a lacquer on it. The reason I say this is that brass will tarnish fairly quickly and can turn black. What keeps the brass from tarnishing so fast(and keeps it shiny and gold-ish) is the lacquer which keeps the air from tarnishing. Eventually (takes years), that brass shine will tarnish even underneath the lacquer though. The way to deal with that is stripping the lacquer... then shine up with a brass cleaner once that lacquer is off, and then re-lacquer. Sometimes something will look like it is solid brass but is actually brass plated. I think you could still try the above method though, and you will eventually figure out what metal is all the way through. In either case, you could try shining it up with a brass cleaner, if nothing happens to make them look better, you will need to strip it. That means there is lacquer that needs to be stripped to get to the brass. Then try to brass cleaner it again. (TRY BRASSO cleaner) If still nothing looks better, then the metal is probably a cheap metal that has been painted to look like brass and can just be repainted and finished off with another lacquer or polycrilic finisher.