Best tool for cleaning brass door plates and decorations...

m0rgana

Hello!

I'm trying to revive the very dull, tarnished brass letterbox, knocker and numbers on our front door, so far with limited success. I've been working on the letterbox using a cloth and Brasso, and after a few hours of swearing and a lot of elbow grease, it's looking pretty good.

The numbers and knocker are proving a whole lot trickier, thanks to their small size - it's just too tricky for me to build up the pressure necessary to get them shiny.

This makes me think that SOMEBODY must have invented a tool to do this job. Something that gets in the tricky bits you can't reach by hand.

Can anyone tell me if such a thing exists and if I can pick one up at a reasonable cost?

thanks!

keystone

Old toothbrush.

Cheers

phill99

Take them off the door. The letters normally have small screws holding them on and the knocker is normally bolted on the inside.

Place them in a tray and cover them with copious amounts of tomato ketchup. Make sure it covers all the brass. Leave for a few hours. Rinse under cold water and most of the tarnish would have come off. Then give a light polish with brasso.

Works every time for me.

Stooby2

Dremel type multi tool is the mutts nuts for cleaning stuff, if the ketchup route doesn't work! I use one on the motorbikes for the harder to reach bits.

There are also ultrasonic baths that do a great job and you can use them for jewellery etc. Something like this.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/JPL-7000-Ultrasonic-Cleaner-accessories/dp/B00112B0U0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373921091&sr=8-1&keywords=ultrasonic+bath

[Deleted User]

Hi,

toothbrush and lemon juice, if you have an old electric toothbrush, or maybe just a spare head, it'll make the job easier.

Biggles

And when you have them satisfactorily shiny, give them all a coat of varnish before replacing them, this will keep them shinier for longer.