Tarnished brass handles can be given new life

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/02/2003 (8302 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Q: I hope you can help me. I have original brass handles on our dresser. But now they have become tarnished and discoloured, very dark. Is there any way in which to return them to the original brass colour, nice and bright?

A: It’s worth the effort to shine up original hardware, especially on old furniture of value. Newly polished hardware and a quick rub with scratch-cover oil can do wonders for a timeworn piece. The alternative, buying new hardware, can be expensive and never quite match the piece’s style and fittings, requiring you to drill new holes. Worse, changing hardware on a good antique will cut its value.

Try this to restore your brass:

z Unscrew the handles and any other exterior brass hardware. Put it all in a sink or plastic tub, where you can comfortably scrub away (if you scrub hardware while it’s still fitted to the drawers, you might damage the surrounding wood, not to mention your knees).

z There are many metal cleaners out, but I get the best results with paste your choice, but stick to one for brass (Brasso and Wright’s are good bets). Work the paste over the handle (follow directions; some pastes should dry before you wipe them off) until they gleam. Give yourself time maybe take the operation into the living room and watch a movie while you scrub in case the tarnish is stubborn.

z Once shiny, give the handles a rinse and buff dry before attaching them to the dresser. Give hollow-handled hardware several days to dry. You should be able to repolish them occasionally without having to remove them.

Cleaning pro and author Don Aslett points out in “The Cleaning Encyclopedia” that brass tarnishes quickly when exposed to air, and is often lacquered as a prevention. Heavy tarnish like yours indicates that any lacquer has probably worn off, in which case the brass can be stripped and re-lacquered, he notes. Other brass finish protectors besides lacquer include tung oil and car wax, as well as paste cleaners like Nevr-Dull and Met-Pol that leave a film of oil that retards tarnish.

Above all, Aslett adds, don’t use steel wool or harsh cleaners or scrubbing pads, which eventually wear through brass-plated hardware and expose other metal underneath.

–Knight Ridder Newspapers