Is there a 'dip' type cleaner for intricate tarnished brasswork.

[Peter]

Does anybody know of a chemical type cleaner for cleaning heavily tarnished brass? The item is a complex moulding and very hard to clean with cloth and brasso which just reaches the more exposed surfaces.

[Cicero]

I don't know of a 'dip' but you could try an old toothbrush to get into the crevices.

Cic.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Vinegar (non brewed condiment) will remove the hard oxidisation and make polishing with conventional things very much easier.

[Mr Fuxit]

Cover it thickly with mashed rhubarb; no rhubarb?-try Branston pickle.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Peter saying something like:

[Bill]

In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes

I heard that this was good too. I had been trying to clean a similar intricate statue and tried it with coke. Having a large ultrasonic cleaning bath that I had tried with various cleaning fluids before I put 5 litres of coke in, plus the statue and turned it on.

What happens when you VERY rapidly shake 5l of coke? It was most impressive, Dr Who special effects would have been proud of it.

Say after me "I'm a pillock" for some reason it had never crossed my mind, gave SWMBO some amusement though so all was not in vain.

[Rob Morley]

Isn't that going to de-zincify it and result in a copper finish?

[EricP]

Just brush brown sauce over it, and it will clear most of the crap.

[John Schmitt]

ROTFL! Sonication was used for degassing solvents for HPLC. Nowadays there are inline degassers which make life a little easier. Using the sonicator for cleaning jewelery was a sideline which meant that I always had favours to call in when needed.

Back to the original question, it is possible to remove the tarnish from brass with a variety of weak acids, but a strong acid like the mineral acids will dezincify the surface, changing its appearance. As for polishing, I cannot think of any magical recipe to do that which does not contain elbow grease. If you look on the ingredients list for coke, phosphoric acid is listed and it is this which tackles the corrosion. For those of you who remember Jenolite (now apparently superseded by a superior product) that was a mixture of phosphoric and hydrochloric acids plus a couple of ancillary ingredients.

John Schmitt

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Rob Morley saying something like:

Hmm...good point. I've used it for carb bodies and the like, but never left brass in for long.

[meow2222]

The FAQ-to-be says either vinegar or tomato ketchup, which contains weak acid + salt.

I've used vinegar on copper and it does a great job. Note the runoff in either case is toxic.

Coke is a very weak cleaner, and not the right kind of acid for best results.

NT