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Brass Plate - Experimental Clean Up

Wildcat1750 (nyjrbethelct)

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Oct 20, 2008
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Bethel, CT
With the snow here to stay for a while in New England my activities have turned to relic clean up. I am new at this and have only attempted rusted iron so far. Now it is time for brass…

A few weeks ago I found an interesting looking, but toasted, brass plate close to where I found an ox shoe and an antique fire place bellows nozzle. In addition to turning brown it had a crust on it that may have come from being in a fire.

First I soaked the piece in a paste made from lemon juice and salt. This removed the crust and turned the surface a yellowish color after much scrubbing with a denture brush. In the end I was left with a rather disagreeable mustard color with a gritty surface with the texture of fine sandpaper.

I carefully examined the surface for markings and found none. Next I buffed the surface with a wire wheel which brought back a nice metallic shine to it and then straightened the plate in a vice. I’m not sure yet if I should attempt this method on better brass relics but I like the results and the wire wheel did not seem to wear down any of the surface markings.

I’m still curious as to the purpose of this plate and what it might have been fastened to.

Should I apply anything to the surface now to preserve the shine?
 

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Anything small enough to fit in my tumbler, gets tumbled with a load of coins. That seems to clean the item up nicely, without giving it that shiny look.
 
Anything small enough to fit in my tumbler, gets tumbled with a load of coins. That seems to clean the item up nicely, without giving it that shiny look.
I agree with you, Mick56. I normally keep it even lower key than that, preferring to preserve the patina if a nice one exists.

In this case the piece was pretty toasted (literally :wow:) with evidence of having been in a fire. I purposely set out to restore that shiny look. I would not attempt this technique on a nicer relic. :roll:
 
Thanks, Rammjäger. Does that keep the reddish brown color and/or patina if any or change it to a shiny brass color?

I think so.Because I cleaned with electrolysis an old copper coin
that had the dirt so much attached to it,it would habe been impossible to clean it without damaging it other way.It keeps the patina after doing
electrolysis to it,but you should not brush it afterwards.
 
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