Cas City Forum Hall & CAS-L
CAS TOPICS => The Longbranch => Topic started by: The Arapaho Kid on November 28, 2004, 12:06:48 PM
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To my CAS ensemble I added three brass match safes. One has matches in in...the other ones have my SASS Business cards. When I got these they were horribly tarnished up. I used Brasso on one and it took a lotta elbow grease and time. Went snooping for better ways to polish brass. Found one! Common household items. A mixture of toothpaste and Worchestershire sauce does wonders for tarnished brass! I use a folded 4 X 4 gauze pad and that mixture cleans tarnished brass like lightning! After it's polished up, rinse it off with warm water, then buff it up with a soft cloth. If you have items like badges, match safes and other brass thingies....use that mixture on them! Trust me! It works!
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....and it's good on a T-bone steak........ ;D
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What I use to polish brass and about everything (including my new poly-ivory grips) is SemiChrome polish. It actually has jewlers rouge in it so it also takes out scratches etc. it only takes a little bit.
give it a try...
curley
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Worchestershire sauce ???
I wonder why that helps. Could be the toothpaste is good enough on its own, and somebody was pullin' your leg about the other ingredient.
Simichrome is great. It has a side-benefit, if you deal in old plastics. One way to tell whether something is bakelite or some other resin is to rub it in an inobtrusive spot with a bit of Simichrome. Only bakelite will leave an orange colored residue on the rag.
Metal-Glo looks a lot like Simichrome, and works as good for polishing, but (unbelievably!) does not do the bakelite test.
I never cared much for Brasso, because it separates in the can. Time you spend shaking is time you could spend buffing.
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I found that toothpaste/Worchestershire sauce mixture on the Ask Jeeves site. I think you're right on toothpaste alone. Doesn't it have some kind of microscopic grit in it?
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Yep. Worcestershire does contain some vinegar, which would tend to neutralize the pH of the toothpaste, which is somewhat alkaline. (Too many dependent clauses?)
Toothpaste mostly contains a bit of pumice, which can be ground as fine or as coarse as the job warrants.
I generally prefer using abrasives for the purpose they are made. With toothpaste, for example, there's no telling whether Crest (or whoever) keeps the product mix constant. There are a lotta good metal polishes around.