Polishing Brass Hardware

[benjaminh123]

Hi,
What do you use to polish tarnished brass hardware on a flintlock rifle?

Benjamin

[retired fella]

Benjamin,
Is this an original.  If so, don't do it.

[benjaminh123]

No, this is a contemporary flintlock, to be specific, a Investarms Hawken.
I realize that polishing an original is a no-no

[Molly]

Well, for starters, I do not like "BRASSO", although I recently read about a combo of brasso and something else but brasso leaves too much residue for me.  I DO like "NEVER DULL" "magic wadding polish".  I take a very small finger tip pull from the can and let it set a while to dry out.  The cleaning agent will sort of dry up and while it still cleans it "flakes" off rather than clogging up the detail.  I also like to wipe it off completely and then go over the brass with a "field wipe" as those made by Remington or other common brands.  That seems to protect the brass from tarnishing for several outings. 

I honestly like the color that old brass takes on over even a short time but what I do not like is some of the spots that seems to show up.  I think they are due to some direct contact with powder/fowling matter??  If I could achieve an overall even dark color that would be fine but for now and because I want to maintain them that way, I'll keep the brass bright.

[Eric Krewson]

I used a bunch of cans of Brasso while I was in the Army, don't remember any residue, same when I used it on the brass of the first gun I made, no residue.

I only used it to see if I needed to remove any more scratches out of my filed and sanded castings after I went over them with a buffing wheel and polishing compound. After I had everything slicked up I started wiping sooty cleaning patches on my brass to reverse all that polishing I had done.

[smokinbuck]

What Eric said, +1
Mark

[Molly]

I like the natural oxidation and surface of a contemporary that has NOT been polished to that bright new luster on brass.  What I don't like is those dark spots that seem to show up out of no where.  I'm thinking they are caused by a direct hit of some bp "ash" or even a grain of unfired bp.  Anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent that?  Only cure seems to be polish it all back to "new" and start over.  I have a trio of contemporaries which have never been fired and were build maybe 6 to 10 years ago.  That brass looks great.  Dull/pale yellow and totally even.  I also have an original.  Someone has suggested the patch box might have been polished years ago.  It too has returned to a dull brass look and it looks great.

But back to brasso.  I polished a lot of military brass as well.  But never on dress uniform buttons, for example.  Never needed to but on the lapel pins for your "corps" identification...a flat surface it was fine.  I also have used it on a lot of furniture hardware as well as some brass era autos.  Once again, great for the flat surface but given an engraved patch box I think it would be a headache to clean it out of all the lines of engraving.  I'm sitting her right now looking at a Queen Anne period lowboy with some fool who used something like brasso on the hardware.  Build up and caked all over the edges onto the wood.  Been thinking about trying to clean it off but not ready to try it yet.  Brasso on a textured surface is a pain, IMHO.

[bones92]

We used Brasso on brass belt buckles when I was a midshipman, and for various other metals that needed polishing.

Seems a lot of guys like Flitz more than Brasso.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

The chances are it was polished with buffing wheels when it was new, and the corners didn't get proper treatment.  If you are interested in a 'as new' look, take the brass off, and polish it first with files to get the corners right, then abrasive cloth and paper until you have it the way you want it.  There is no fast way to make old brass look new.

[smylee grouch]

I would try a scotch brite pad.