Cleaning brass

[whiteknight38]

What the pros do, Like the guys at The door Store here in Toronto, the best source I know of anywhere for any kind of rare, and exotic restoration hardware, is buff each piece with a wire brush on a bench grinder. I restore mortise locks too, and you can take one down and buff each part in bout an hour. I clean the bodies with degreaser, brake cleaner or oven cleaner, and spray them matt or gloss black depending, and file them away for resale. Rrestoration hardware is expensive. The Door store, sells a large mostise case lock for upwards of 300 bucks.
A grinder and a wire wheel will set you back about 50 or so.
If you wnat ot, you can buy burnishing compound, (Green is good for brass) and a cotton wheel, and you'll get the parts looking like mirrored glass.
Wear a mask while buffing the brass to avoid breathing particulate.

[horsefeathers]

Just cut new keys. The levers don't need to sparkle and shine!

Were going a little off topic here! If a customer wants his lock changed and expects to pay £40+ (inc call-out) and then I say that for a less price I can replace his lever pack and he gets two new keys, then one happy customer. I (and no doubt he) would feel happier paying £30 for a new lever pack + keys, than £30 for a couple of differently cut keys (having swapped levers 1 + 2 around for example). Same price but customer feels he has got more for his money!

It is also convenient to sometimes salvage good condition levers/curtains etc. Where for example can you get a brand new lever pack for an old BS securefast. Not an easy find! And if you make your living as a locksmith then any opportunity to reduce stock costs/overheads etc should not be wasted. A call-out to a pensioner wanting said lock changed, why not pop in a vgc lever pack! Customer happy, and I have not incurred any costs other than diesel, and I do not have to buy any replacement stock afterwards. My reputation ultimately rests on what I personally consider to be vgc and whether I am happy to fit. If I am not 100% happy then i replace whole lock.

regards

[2octops]

We have had heated discussions about removing tarnish from brass on another forum.

The cheapest and easiest with the best results is to soak in lemon juice. Usually takes less than an hour. Rinse and dry, then powder with cornstarch to keep from re-tarnishing.

A more expensive version, but with better results is a parts tumbler with a mixture of pecan shells and corn cobs. Just dump up to 10 pounds of any metal in, turn it on and come back tomorrow and everything has a mirror finish.

[horsefeathers]

real lemon juice or Jif lemon you put on pancakes??

One website said Worcester sauce, another said ketchup. Guess what we now have in UK - Lea + Perrins Tomato and Worcester Table Sauce. I cant go wrong with that surely....

regards

[whiteknight38]

I don't know how off topic I was, Horsefeathers. And I didn't stop to see if the topic had been exhaustively covered in other posts/forums. I merely described how professional restoration-hardware specialists refurbish brass parts for locks.
I might have answered differently if I'd noticed that you were from Norfolk, UK.
You may not be aware of this, but the common understanding of "mortise lock case" is quite different over here in North America. Lever locks are virtually unknown over here. (Outside of prison and safe-deposit applications.) Some old homes have single-lever mortise, locks for privacy functions like bedrooms, and sheds, but lever locks for exterior security on homes are unheard of.
Seriously.
In fact I only started running into Euro profile cylinders as late as a couple of years ago.
North American entry-function mortise locks have lever functioning parts, but they are all actuated by pin tumbler cylinders screwed into mortise bodies that accomodate a handle or grip set. In commercial apps, center-to-center measurements of cylinders to handles are fixed at 4".
The centers on locks used in 60 to 100+ year old homes, are all over the place. depending on which manufacturer made them. So you can't swap out a functioning Yale for a Bellville for example, when the latter stops working because of a worn out part.
Consequently, parts, and fully-functioning locks, are much sought out by home owners who want to keep the original look of their doors intact.
A cleaned up, highly polished and painted North American mortise lock is a thing of beauty and a hot collectible as well.
That's why people take time to clean them, either to sell them, display them, or store them indefinetely in their shops, till need for a particular model comes up.

[raimundo]

there are different stiffnesses in wire brush, but most will leave a finish of scratches which may not always be considered 'restoring', if its an antique, you may just want to take of the tarnish, (greengrey in french is vertigris and on brass, this is copper sulphat or some such oxide. wash your hands before you eat, its poison) If the person is interested in antique ness, you may just want to clean it up a bit but leave the surface unpolished.

[horsefeathers]

No problem whiteknight. I suppose my initial Q was a bit vague - I just assumed that UK lockies would know what I was on about and non-UK ones wouldn't. I should have clarified exactly what I was referring to.

Just wanted a labour saving 'solution' where I could deposit levers for a hour or two to soak in some magic household chemical. No scrubbing, brushing, sanding down! Far too busy doing mans work!

Cleaning??? Why, that's womens work!

regards

[zeke79]

Use Kaboom cleaner, CLR, or Limeaway. Rinse with water and neutralize in 90% isopropyl alcohol when finished and re rinse with water. Takes only a few minutes (15) to clean even the most stubborn tarnish.

I have never tried lemon juice but it is now on the list next time I need to do it.

[WOT]

Brass keys:
paint thinner to remove oil
then overnight in orange juice.

[horsefeathers]

Brass keys:
paint thinner to remove oil
then overnight in orange juice.

Now its bleedin orange juice.........just when I was sending the old lady to get jif lemon juice now he tells me orange juice...

ki-ora or Sunny delight?



regards

[docdredd]

i am not sure the fruit matters as long as the citric acid concentration is high enough, as im pretty sure that is what is causing any cleaning action that may have occured. i have never tryed buffing locks but i use a green "scratchless" buffing compound when i am cleaning up the brass bolsters on my knives. hope this helps, good luck
jon

[Deathadder]

they tested soda on mythbusters, and it worked better than a store-bought cleaning agent. from the looks of it, it didn't get it perfectly shiny, but it was pretty darn close. (by the way, they tested it on a penny)

[mercurial]

If you do decide to use lemon juice, it is worth adding salt to it (as has been touched upon above.)

The lemon (and other citrus) juicers work due to the citric acid content. By adding salt, you actually produce a small amount of hydrochloric acid, which is far more powerful than citric acid alone. This should work significantly faster than using lemon juice alone.

Vinegar (any kind will do, white or otherwise, I'd just use cheap stuff) and salt works by the same principle, the acetic acid in the vinegar reacts with the salt forming mild concentration of hydrochloric acid.

I do not believe that these solutions will take a significant degree of metal away from the levers - brass is very inert, and should not react. I do not know if the spring steel used for the lever springs is resiliant, it may corrode - it would be wise to check.

Rinsing and drying thoroughly is important, if you wish to avoid the corrosion coming back quickly.

Bit off topic - I saw a _highly_ unusual means of polishing brass in India - there is a spice they use called Tamarind, and it comes as a thick paste. The paste is smeared lightly over the brass, and polished off with a cloth - the results were as good as those I'd seen using commercial brass polishing products!

Hope that helps,

...Mark

[Wolfe]

some one said it before Kaboom tub n tile works instantly on brass n copper whatever. no scrubbing nessasary and its non toxic.

[raimundo]

lemon has more citric acid than orange, lime is even more acidic, if your in columbia, try the maraquja, these little fruit are so full of citric acid theyll pucker your lips all the way to your bunghole.