Cleaning Brass and Other Metals

In a household bursting at the seams with everything under the sun, I expected to find Brasso.  Seems like there's always a can of Brasso tucked away somewhere in every house, garage or workshop.  I was a bit bothered when I couldn't find any, so I pulled out every substitute I could find.  And I decided to try them all.  I had always thought that only Brasso could clean brass, and it seems like I'd tried other things in the past.  But today is a new day, so I started with the two products
that had failed me when I was trying to clean up a pair of bronze lanterns.

I started working on a small brass dish that needed a touch of TLC.

First came the Heavy Metal Polish stashed in the garage, which had a money back guarantee printed on the front of the bottle.  It says it cleans brass, but I'm betting it's really made for mag wheels, that kind of thing.  So I started working on the outside of the dish, in case I didn't like the outcome.  Not to worry:

 The oily sheen it left behind was the only visible difference I could see.

Then I tried the Never Dull
which tried to shine the metal without cleaning it first.
(See the shiny area on the left.) 

That was interesting.  The cotton wading quickly picked up the black stain from the tarnish and began to spread it around.  It buffed out nice, but left dark tarnish behind in the etchings.  This could be okay for a final polishing, or buffing up a piece that was already pretty clean.  I do like being able to see the details, and I like a deep shine.  It did both of those things, but it took an awful lot of rubbing and buffing.

In the end it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. 

Next came Mr. Metal, which also claimed to clean and polish brass.  The Mr. Metal left a blotchy, stained appearance behind, even over the small shiny area left behind by the Never Dull.  When I was done it looked like someone tried to clean it with the wrong stuff and gave up. (Which was exactly what had happened!)

Not at all the look I was after.

Finally, the Tarn-X.  Now Tarn-X has been around about as long as I have, so it has a track record to fall back on.  And I'm sure it's one of the very best at cleaning silver and silver plate.  I had always thought it was only for silver, but I was assured I was misinformed.  So I tried it.  I saved it for last because I thought it would be the best of the bunch, and therefore the one I would use to finish up the job.  Well, it didn't produce the results I'd expected, but at least it looked cleaner.  

The Tarn-X actually cleaned the metal

and made it look duller at the same time.

In the end, the clean, shiny spot on the brass dish
is the mark left behind by the Never Dull.

So I put Brasso on my shopping list!

Several days later I sat down with my brand new bottle of Brasso, which, by the way, no longer comes in a little blue and white can.  It's a yellow plastic bottle, and I found it with the copper and stainless cleaners in the detergent isle of my local grocery store.  I put just a little of the cleaning solvent on a plain paper towel and wiped it over half of the brass dish.  The dirty half.  In only a few minutes the paper towel was blackened and the dish was looking pretty clean.  I used a clean spot on the paper towel to wipe off the rest of the tarnish and clean the dish. 

The whole production took less than 5 minutes

and the only mess was a dirty paper towel! 

I was so happy with the speed and ease (hardly any rubbing and no buffing) that I immediately turned the dish over and cleaned half of the outside, too.  Yipee!

 The hands down winner.