What is the best way to clean brass

[Billy T]

Marine hardware suppliers in NZ and Australia stock a very effective polish for brass, chrome and other metals. It is a German product and the trade name is Autosol.

The manufacturer is Dursol-FabrikMartinstrabe 22. 42655 Solingen, Germany. and additional contact details are below:

www.autosol.de or www.dursol.com Email: info@autosol.de

I have found their products to be very effective on many different metals, and after some persuasion, my son used it to clean and polish his vintage Selmer Paris tenor saxophone with excellent results and he used less than 10% of the tube.

At present I have two versions: Autosol Metal Polish and Autosol Marine Shine.

AMP simply states that it cleans and polishes all metals, but AMS specifies chrome, aluminium, stainless steel, brass, and copper, but it can also be used as a rubbing compounds for GRP (glass reinforced plastic), paint and acrylic and synthetic materials.

If you can source it in the UK, it is not expensive and is well worth a trial.

I wouldn't be surprised if these products were found to be well known to the vintage car and motorcycle fraternity in the UK.

Cheers

Billy

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by Station X

With the disappearance of traditional hardware shops from the UK, it's difficult to buy Brasso except in silly little 175ml overpriced containers.

But you can get it online, e.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brasso-Liq...item3cdea09969

Nick

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by Billy T

Marine hardware suppliers in NZ and Australia stock a very effective polish for brass, chrome and other metals. It is a German product and the trade name is Autosol.

Autosol is marketed as an automotive chrome cleaner in the UK, and is available from chains like Halfords. It isn't as common as it used to be given the trend away from chrome brightwork on cars.

My personal experience is that all these mild cutting compounds are much of a muchness. I just use a big bottle of T-Cut which seems as good as anything.

[Bazz4CQJ]

I think that Autosol gives a finer finish than T-Cut, but the latter is appreciably cheaper and is often my starting point for cleaning up metal and plastic.

I used to be involved with a lot of metalurgical work and on a sawn section the standard practice was to start off with 180 grit abrasive paper, work through the grades to 1000 grit and then finish with 1 micron diamond paste polish giving a true mirror-finish. On any polishing job, starting with too fine an abrasive means slow progress.

B

[HamishBoxer]

Duraglit works a treat or Brasso similar wool.From most supermarkets.

[Polarrestorer]

I frequently have old brass (up to 80 years old) to clean up. I have used electrolytic baths for cleaning 4000-year-old silver, but for old brass I avoid abrasive powders, liquids or other chemicals, as the cleaning-up when finishing-off is a chore.
What's best in my opinion is 000 grade bronze wool for really bad stuff, and preferably 0000 grade bronze for lightly-corroded brass. This way, one avoids the problem of little bits of STEEL wool being left in that gear being cleaned and slowly rusting. Good luck with the project!

[Bazz4CQJ]

Originally Posted by Polarrestorer

What's best in my opinion is 000 grade bronze wool for really bad stuff, and preferably 0000 grade bronze for lightly-corroded brass. This way, one avoids the problem of little bits of STEEL wool being left in that gear being cleaned and slowly rusting. Good luck with the project!

Good point, and also true in terms of cleaning stainless steel.