Asked on Mar 22, 2019
How do you clean an exterior door handle that's never been cleaned?
by
Cindy Rubin
+10
Is there anything stronger than Brasso I can use on the handle and deadbolt lock on the exterior front door of the house. I have tried umpteen times (that's a lot :)) with only partial success.
Maybe this tutorial can help you: https://www.ehow.com/how_6548423_clean-old-door-hardware.html
Have you tried to boil it for 15 min in water and baking soda?
just buy a new one, this is a disaster!
It looks to me like the finish has worn off. This is not a matter of cleaning, but replacing or painting.
If none of the other suggestions work, black paint could work well. Be sure to sand it down so the paint has some "tooth" to stick to. Good luck!
If it were me, I would start with WD-40 to clean all the grim/grit off...then maybe a brass polish if it is brass, etc. or like cleaning material for whatever metal it might be.
How about white vinegar and dawn mixed applied and leave on for a while then rinse...half and half mix
The finish has worn off. There is no hope for cleaning it. Cheapest solution is to spray paint it.
https://heatherednest.com/knob-snob/
https://www.hometalk.com/diy/repair/windows/an-amazingly-easy-way-to-refinish-door-hardware-1942539
An Amazingly Easy Way to Refinish Door Hardware
https://www.hometalk.com/diy/craft-room/craft-room-furniture/easily-update-old-door-knobs-42094117
Easily Update Old Door Knobs
There was a similar problem when my family and I were going to move to a new place of residence and freed our garage from things. It was a solid garbage dump and so dirty things. We had an excellent offer from https://www.emop.co.uk/earlsfield-cleaner, which easily clean everything. So in this case everything is possible when you know how to do it.
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.
Here's a post that might help https://www.handles4doors.co.uk/advice/cleaning-tarnished-metal
I have several cleaning tutorials that might help you https://chascrazycreations.com/diys/how-tos/cleaning/
That looks like the finish has been worn off, not just tarnished.