I like to keep my brass well polished. Harder said than done. Then I hade an idea. After polishing all the brass on a Kentucky long, I thought, What if I could varnish it all. I used Grumbacher gloss oil paint varnish. It actually looked sorta OK. It laid out smooth and flat with no color tint. But it is not very wear resistant, and it hates black powder. Seems to cut right into it. So on my Pedersoli Bounty I used polyurethane. That did not work! It flowed well enough, but the finished product looked dull and off color. I stripped it all back off, buffed it back to mirror, and went looking for a new answer. Somewhere on this forum I heard about Blirz Brass Shine cloths. I just got them. Haven’t tried them yet, but from what I’ve heard, it’s good stuff.