Cleaning Brass Furniture

[Whiteoak15]

Rather than wax, try one of the ceramic car protectant products. They are much tougher than paste wax.

 

[hanshi]

Thanks for the Blitz Cloth update, SOLANCO!

 

[James Dietz]

CaptDan! I also have a cannon. Bronze barreled 1842 Mountain Howitzer. I have ignored the bronze for a couple years now and it looks like one of those green ones you see at Gettysburg! I am having a hard time removing the tarnish and shining it up. So Never-Dull does work? Should I use an electric buffing wheel or stick to my arm? Thanks!

 

[oldwood]

B careful to not rub the stock finish off around the inlay. It's more noticeable than a corroded inlay. Many old rifle shows evidence of too much cleaning around the edges of metal inlays.

 

[oldwood]

Buffing wheel and red polishing rouge , on the cannon barrel. That much brass will make you plenty tired polishing , by hand. To cheat , once the barrel is smokin' shiny , maybe someone can recommend something to put on the barrel , to prevent corrosion?

 

[appalichian hunter]

Does anyone know is it brass or silver that you shouldn't use any cleaning product containing ammonia on ?

Silver, clorox will also do a number on silver. During my Marine Corps days newly bought belt buckles had a coating on them that had to come off in order to properly polish the brass, a soak for about a hour in ammonia would loosen the coating enough to make the removal easier.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Original poster is obviously not a military veteran. In basic training we even took Brasso to the copper tubing in the latrine.

Ever polish the hinge pins in squad bay door hinges,or galvanized trash cans, been there done that.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Make yer own blitz cloth, find a well worn (clean) cotton diaper take a can of brasso, a block of jewlers rouge pounded to dust mix the two together completly soak the diaper hang out to dry, Mine was made 1974 right after I got out of boot camp and reported to the 3rd Marine Division, I still have mine from the Corps and I got out in 1981, works very well yet.

 

[shaman]

12hours in untreated walnut media got everything cleaned up to a slightly dulled shine. That's probably preferable for a hunting rifle.
I had a couple of spots that required extra treatment. I used Flitz on a cotton patch.

 

[Mad L]

Does anyone know is it brass or silver that you shouldn't use any cleaning product containing ammonia on ?

No Ammonia around Brass!!
When I was into 'aging' stuff it was a Hollywood trick I learned to quickly age Brass (probably would work on silver too) to hang the piece just above the ammonia. Soft brass will begin turning within hours, others let it hang. BUT, to keep the color/corrosion let it dry, if you wipe it right away it will look ugly.
I was told tossing some Pennies into the ammonia will enhance it; never saw that but did get some shiny pennies...and some corroded ones too.

 

[colimr]

Thank you

 

[Surfinator58]

Brasso definitely has some ammonia in it many brass cleaning products do since ammonia works so well I use straight up ammonia from the grocery store on all my brass whether it's modern Firearms or black powder it works great

 

[SDSmlf]

From the Brasso SDS. Ammonia for sure. And I know of modern gun shooters that use Brasso to clean their gun’s bores because of how well it dissolves copper residue.

 

[Mad L]

Brasso: but the ammonia is not 'pure' and you wipe it off not leave it on.
It is the Ammonia Fumes that does the damage. Give it a try and watch the Magic of aging overnight happen.
I have done many a Brass button and buckle this way.

 

[John Spartan]

In a bit of a follow-up to my earlier question about applying paste wax over shined brass to keep it shiny…the answer is apparently “No it does not.”

Hardly an exhaustive test but I tried it on a clean piece and, surprisingly to me, it doesn’t seem to be doing much - in fact it may be yellowing faster. I would thought the brass would be sealed from air and not tarnish but nope. Slight bonus is it does seem to be “yellowing” more uniformly instead of the usual blotchy start. Test run continues.

 

[FlinterNick]

I use semichrome polish on a magic eraser.

 

[Mad L]

I use semichrome polish on a magic eraser.

Sometimes called a "rust eraser", I forgot about those. In the 80s and earlier they were great for smoothing out scratches in selenium but for a mirrored finish you need to follow up with a good polish.

 

[springfield art]

I BELIEVE (correct me if I'm wrong) that Brasso and other similar polishes contain ammonia. AND ammonia is said to make brass cartridges brittle, therefore reducing cartridge life?

I've read that, too.