Brass, Copper and Bronze Cleaner

Natural Methods
Lemon juiceIf you’ve ever had a lemon tree in your backyard, or even somewhere in your neighbourhood, you will have discovered that there are only so many ways you can before these prolific trees are simply wasting their fruit! However, they are especially handy for cleaning things around the home, either when juiced or simply chopped in half.
To clean brass with lemon juice, you can either use it neat, or mixed with vinegar and/or baking soda.
• Mix up a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice and a couple of teaspoons of vinegar.
• Add enough baking soda that it becomes a gritty paste
• Use this with a cloth to scrub your brass items.
• Rinse with lukewarm water and dry with a clean cloth.
Or you can simply cut a lemon in half, sprinkle it with either salt or baking soda (enough that the juice of the lemon doesn’t dissolve it), and use this directly on your brass. Remember that this method will be slightly abrasive – don’t use if you want to keep your lacquer, and don’t overdo if your item is only brass plated.
You can either rinse with water, or simply buff the surface with a clean, dry, soft cloth.
Lemon juice, vinegar and baking soda are all especially acidic (with pHs of around 3-4), that is why they are effective cleaners, especially for alkaline dirt like soap scum or hard water deposits.

Milk and Yoghurt
Use either sour milk, natural unflavoured yoghurt, or whey to clean your brass.
• Either put the item in a pan of sour milk or whey, or coat it with yoghurt
• Leave it somewhere away from your nose for a minute or two!
• When the yoghurt is dry, or the time is up, remove the item from the dairy product (!), and wash it off with lukewarm water.
• If you want a very gentle way to scour off dirt after the item has been soaked like this, you can use a woollen cloth dipped in ashes. Or, a microfibre cleaning cloth!
• It is a good idea to either rinse the item very well and rub it dry, simply to avoid your house smelling like a dairy graveyard!

Ketchup and Worcestershire Sauce
There is not much difference in effectiveness between these two delicious cleaning products! They both have a pH of around 3-4, which is why they remove dirt wellThe one you choose to use will probably depend on which is more readily available in your house, and which one you prefer the smell of while you are using it to clean. A small note – tomato sauce is similar to ketchup, but doesn’t work as well in the cleaning stakes, as it is less acidic. This does make it gentler, though.
• First try rubbing the sauce into your item with a soft cloth.
• If this doesn’t remove the dirt very well, coat the item in sauce and leave it to sit for a minute or so.
• See how much dirt is removed when you rub the sauce off after a minute. If the item is still fairly dirty, leave it for one minute more next time, then another minute, etc. The time taken will depend on the nature of the dirt.
• If the item is especially dirty and you want to clean it evenly, leave it immersed in sauce rather than simply coated (as gravity does its work you will end up with patches that are slightly cleaner than others).

Onions
Another method you will need to employ in the kitchen, but make sure it is well ventilated first, and then be prepared to wash your item well afterwards!
• Put a couple of inches of water in a small pan.
• Chop onions to fill the pan – make them small enough that the water will cover them when put in the pan. Don’t chop them too finely.
• Bring to a boil and then simmer the onions for two hours.
• Use a vegetable strainer (colander) to remove the onions
• Keep the water and use this with a soft cloth to polish your brass.

DIY Methods - Brass, Copper and Bronze Cleaner
While you can make this brass (and copper and bronze) cleaner at home, with ingredients from your cupboard, it is definitely not safe for consumption. While the natural methods may smell a bit, they are definitely more child and pet friendly than this one! Therefore, if you make up this cleaner, don’t store it in empty food containers, make sure it is labelled and kept in a place that kids can’t reach.First, gather the ingredients together:
• 1/2 c flour
• 1/2 c salt
• 1/2 c powdered detergent
• 3/4 c white vinegar
• 1/4 c lemon juice
• 1/2 c very warm water
Mix all of the dry ingredients together first. When they are well mixed, add all of the liquid ingredients. Then it is pretty much done! Pop it in a jar that won’t be mistaken for food, label it and put it with your other cleaning products.Be aware that the salt and powdered detergent can make this cleaner an abrasive one – don’t rub too hard if you have a brass plated item, or if you want your lacquered brass to stay lacquered.

Salt and Vinegar
Great in small amounts on potatoes, but really quite potent chemicals when mixed together in pure form! That is why they are in the DIY section rather than the natural methods section.
• As for the general metal cleaner, use equal parts of salt, vinegar and flour to create a paste.
• While you are making your evil concoction (!), leave the brass soaking in hot water. If it is a large piece, give it a squirt of water and leave it on.
• Coat the piece with the paste and leave it to sit for half an hour.
• Check its condition after this time, and if you need to, leave it for another half an hour.
• To give your unlacquered brass a bit more of a polish, or remove chunky dirt, use a cloth to buff the item with the paste still on it, and the salt should act as an abrasive.
• When it is clean enough for you, rinse with water and dry off with a clean cloth.

Discolouration - If you don’t rinse your brass off with water after using vinegar to clean it, you can get some reddish discolouration, especially in the valleys of your piece. This will be important for many of you that are cleaning older doorknobs, which often have engraving or surface detail. If you like, you can leave this on as an artistic effect! If you prefer a solid colour throughout, use water and a toothbrush to remove all of the cleaning solution from the brass, then dry with a cloth rather than airdrying. Alternatively, you could use a hairdryer to blow your piece dry, or even a fan forced oven for small pieces. Don’t leave it in too long though! And definitely don’t put your metal objects in the microwave to dry…
If your object has discoloured already, and you want to remove it, use Brasso or another commercial brass polish to remove the discolouration.
The salt and vinegar is a good method for tarnished brass, as opposed to merely dirty brass (which would be best served by soap and water). The reason for this is that tarnish on brass is caused by oxidation of the metal (oxygen molecules in the air attach themselves to the brass molecules, creating a different compound). Oxidation tarnish is easily removed by acidic substances – like vinegar, lemon juice, etc.

Vinegar and Steel Wool
This is one of the simpler methods available. Grab some vinegar, pour it on or soak your item in it for a minute or two if size allows, then just use steel wool to remove the tarnish.HOWEVER!All of the precautions we have noted elsewhere apply to this method also.
• If your item is brass plated, not solid brass, using steel wool probably isn’t the best idea. You could use vinegar with a soft cloth instead, much of the cleaning action comes from the acidity of the vinegar rather than the physical scrubbing.
• Use a fine grade of steel wool (if it is numbered, 000 is the minimum, with 00000 and a bit more time being preferable).
• Watch your item if you are soaking it in vinegar – some items will discolour in the vinegar, and you will then need to buy a commercial polish to remove the discolouration!
• See the Salt and Vinegar section for tips on preventing your item from discolouring when it has been cleaned in vinegar, and also for rescue methods if it has already discoloured.
Some people use apple cider vinegar, while some report that red wine vinegar works better than white wine. Which works best fro you will depend on your particular dirt!

Toothpaste
Toothpaste is a gentle abrasive – gentle enough to be used on brass plated items. Use the opaque toothpastes rather than the clear toothpastes – opaque ones are more likely to contain a mild abrasive, whereas clear pastes are likely to be more focused on killing bacteria and freshening breath. All noble aims, but not strictly necessary for cleaning brass!
Be aware though, that this method will probably not be as effective as many of the other methods, as toothpaste is alkaline, not acidic. The main cleaning action will come from the physical scrubbing of the particles on the brass surface. In the lemon juice, vinegar, ketchup, baking soda and salt methods, the acidity of the substance helps remove the oxidation chemically – the oxidising of the metal is what creates the tarnish effect.
Toothpaste should not discolour your metal at all, though, which is always something to watch out for with the chemical methods. It is also a handy alternative if you find you have unusual dirt (!) – not just tarnish – on your brassware.
To feel especially weird, use a toothbrush to apply it!

Mineral Oil
The mineral oil method is a good one to finish off with, using it in conjunction with one of the acidic substance methods. If you use it at the end of the cleaning process, it will give your brass piece a nice shine and a protective coating which isn’t as restrictive as lacquer. Mineral oil is also known as baby oil, when it has fragrance added. It is quite similar to petroleum jelly, which is good for wound care. You may know it as white oil or liquid paraffin in your part of the world, and it is usually safe for pieces that kids and pets are around – it is a food-grade oil, although used mostly for machinery and not as an actual ingredient!
If you need to be especially gentle with your brass, for example if the piece is very old and the plating is wearing thin, or if you want to clean your piece while preserving a brushed effect, mineral oil is a good option.
• Apply the oil to a cloth and wipe it over the brass, rubbing if necessary.
• If this doesn’t get it clean enough, use one of the other methods listed.
• Then use the mineral oil method to finish off!
Mineral oil is made from petroleum – many mechanics and tradesmen know that petrol is great for cleaning greasy hands. Despite its oiliness, the mineral oil is actually a solvent for greasy grime on your brassware, making it suitable for some types of dirt, but not necessarily for straight brass tarnish.

Ammonia Dip
Yet another method that depends on a chemical reaction to help with the cleaning is using ammonia. The ammonia method is wonderful if your piece of brass is absolutely disgustingly tarnished, or covered in grime.HOWEVER! Be aware that while acidic compounds such as vinegar, lemon juice, milk etc, attack the tarnish on the surface of the brass, without reacting to the actual metal, compounds that are caustic, or alkaline, will react with the brass itself and eat away at the metal if this becomes your favourite method of cleaning your brass. They will work over an even shorter time if you leave your brass soaking in a caustic solution. Have a look at the Be Careful section if you’d like to know more.
For smooth brass items, clean them with ammonia by:
• Mixing up a dilute solution of 1 part blueprint (80% strength) ammonia to 8 parts water, or 1 part household bleach to 2 parts water.
• Pop the piece in the solution, with rubber gloves.
• Stay with your piece to watch how it reacts.• Use a soft bristled brush while the piece is in solution to scrub away grime.

Bug Juice
Stop! Stop! Don’t reach for your butterfly net and specimen jar! Do you hear the collective sigh of relief from your backyard?! ;-) Bug juice is a navy term for the Kool-Aid (cordial for the other half of the world) mix they get in the service. Not actual … bug juice! In the navy this comes in paper sachets which are mixed with around 5 gallons of water to make a drinkable mix. It may not be available in your part of the world in the reported form – but you may be able to get something similar in the supermarket as a powdered sort of cordial. You then only need to do a conversion on the dilution ratio – sailors recommend using the ‘bug juice’ at about 10 times the required dilution for drinking (mix with a litre of water instead of 5 gallons). If you are using powdered cordial or Kool-Aid, simply divide the amount of water they say to add on the packet by ten.
Coca-Cola is also listed as working in a similar way to bug juice. Be aware that it is quite acidic – don’t leave items soaking in it for too long. It will also remove verdigris patination (the bright green, mouldy looking coating on some very old items), so if you want to keep your verdigris, try a more neutral method, like mineral oil.
• Mix up your solution in a cleaning bucket
• Use a cloth to apply it
• Rinse clean with fresh water, and dry with a clean cloth.

Ready to Use Solutions
With ready-to-use solutions, the golden rule is to read the label – both for your own safety and the preservation of your brass items. Some of you will no doubt prefer different solutions, depending on whether your brass mostly gets tarnished or dirty, and your individual cleaning style – our recommendation is to start with the cheapest option, and work your way up, as bottles or tins of brass cleaner can sometimes last decades – you don’t want to be waiting to use up the tin before trying something different!

Brasso
… many people remember it with fondness and nostalgia, and some of our cleaning methods use it as a secondary method, although it is perfectly usable on its own.Brasso works in a similar way to mineral oil, as it is around 60% hydrocarbons – the basis of all petroleum products, including plastic, incidentally! Another active ingredient in it is ammonia, which was mentioned in the DIY section, along with a cautionary note about it dissolving the actual metal. However, as you’ll hear many times, follow the directions on the label – the manufacturers know best what conditions their product should be used under.
We prefer the straight liquid to the pre-soaked wadding – more cost effective, and more control over how much product is used at once. Therefore less wastage!
Basically you need to soak a cloth in Brasso, and use it rub the tarnish off brass items. You can use it as a finishing method for other natural methods also – it helps remove the smell of sour milk or ketchup! Wear gloves while you are doing it.

Autosol
This is usually used to clean hubcaps and metal hardware on cars (hence the ‘Auto-’ in the name…). It is slightly abrasive, so be careful using it on brass plated items. Just start gently!