Cleaning Stuff Rusty Copper and Brass and Stain Remover/Brass/Copper Cleaner

Recently, I made a scuttle full of home made cleaning vinegar.  This time utilising orange peels and white spirit vinegar.  It is all stored in a huge storage bottle with a tap on the bottom so that I can dispense as much or as little of the vinegar as I wish.

I must say that it is a beautiful degreaser and it makes short work of my cooker top and it is a natural cleaner which I am more than happy about.

I had a bit of a major accident with some of my brass and copper stuff which had been out in the garden in a poly box. However unknown to me the lid had broken and the contents had become drenched.  There were some particularly nice pieces before the rust and so in what I thought would be a frustrated effort to clean and get these items back into decent order on the safe side I did some research and came back to using a lemon and salt and vinegar to clean up with.  As I had no lemon in house at the time I decided to try and use a drop of my cleaning vinegar with the salt and I must say it worked an absolute treat.  Unfortunately I did not take before and after photos, but I am very pleased with how some of the items have turned out.  I still have a load more pieces to go, but I am sticking with them as I am determined to sort these out.  I am dealing with them one at a time.

Another ingredient/cleaner that I tend to keep in the house is something called Oxalic acid.  Most of us will know this as "Bar keeper's friend".  It is very good for cleaning copper and brass in any event but it is also an excellent stain remover.  It is good for porcelain as well.  We had a flood from the kitchen sink and it left a very bad stain on a couple of the doors. I used and scrubbed the bar keepers friend in the form of a paste and then left for a couple of hours and then wiped off.  It has removed the stain from both doors which I am very pleased about.  I have a couple of chairs that have some bad stains on them as well so I intend to try this to see if it will work.  It is what is recommended for black stains on wood and as my furniture is pine.  Fingers crossed.

I have also used Tomato ketchup for cleaning the brass in the past as well which has also worked.

Once I get the brass and copper pieces into a better condition once I am happy I shall polish with some Brasso.  I have three scuttles to clean up as well.  So I have my work cut out.   Cleaning brass and copper is a chore but it does look wonderful especially by candle or firelight.  I have a large collection and every so often I add a little more.  I inherited part of my Nan's copper and brass collection.  I have one of two copper kettles that used to be in ful time use as a kettle on a range.  My brother has the other and when they are polished up they look lovely.  Sometimes nice things require a bit of effort.  I love for things to look their best.

I also bought a large pine mirror that was intended to be used to create a shell mirror for my bathroom.  Unfortunately it got left out in the rain and went all black and horrible.  It got put out for the rubbish twice and then I retrieved it.  I decided to use the Oxalic acid method to try and clean the pine.  It has worked a treat.  I was so chuffed. I sanded the mirror down with both a harsh grit and a fine grit sandpaper and it came up really well and then tacked the dust down on it. 

I already have a couple of small mirrors decorated with shells and being as I had retrieved this mirror I decided to go on to the next stage of preparing the mirror.  I had bought a stain for the shed a coloured turquoise colour which I thought would be ideal for my mirror.  So out came the stain yesterday.  Unfortunately the stain had somehow got filled up with water and would not stick to the frame.  So It looks  as though I am going to have to get another tin so that I can stain the mirror, add the shells, varnish it before putting it in situ.  I also have a swing mirror to decorate the same way and a cupboard which will be ideal for the bathroom.  Just an old wooden cupboard that needs stripping, sanding and then staining and have a couple of handles added.  Will be ideal storage in the bathroom.  That is the plan anyway.  

It is funny how one thing leads to another who would have thought that rusty copper and brass would lead down to cleaning wood and making shell mirrors. 

Catch you soon.  

Pattypan xx