How to Clean Vintage and Antique Brass Hardware

Brasso!

A lot of the hardware I work with is brass, well tarnished 60-100 year old brass. The best way to spruce up the old hardware without having to give up the vintage appeal is to clean the hardware and bring back the original brass (gold) shimmer! I've done this for several pieces - see my vintage cedar chest makeover.

I did a lot of research and came down to three basic ingredients for cleaning tarnished brass hardware: lemon, salt, vinegar, and Brasso. So from the three ingredients, I test three bass methods.

Things you'll need no matter what method you use:

Warm water with soap
Gloves
A soft toothbrush for scrubbing in the crevices

Method 1: Lemon plus salt

I had originally read this method on Centsational Girl blog - there, Kate recommends roughly 1/4 cup of salt per squeeze of /2 lemon.

I used this method when refinishing my vintage cedar chest. I let it soak overnight two different times and the result was really quite good! I repeated the soaking process to get the result I wanted...

... but when I went to put the hardware back on to my vintage cedar chest, the screws didn't fit properly. By soaking the hardware overnight (or from simply the lemon, I don't know) rust developed in the screw holes. What a frustrating moment when I couldn't get the hardware back on!

Method 2: Vinegar Plus Salt

Mix 2-3 parts vinegar plus one part salt

In my research (don't remember where I saw this), I read that vinegar cleans brass well. I mixed vinegar, salt, and a little (just a little) bit of warm water to clean the mid-century buffet I'm currently working on. Wow, what a bust. The vinegar cleans the hardware, yes, but it does not remove the tarnish. You can see this in the picture below.

Method 3: Brasso

Squeeze Brasso directly out of the container and scrub with a toothbrush

Go buy the Brasso, this is the ticket!! I was frustrated with the vinegar, so I jumped in my car and drove to the local hardware store. I picked up Brasso for $3.99 and BOY WAS IT WORTH IT!! Don't bother with the home remedies - method 1 or method 2 - Brasso does the trick. And there's no need for soaking, so no rust in the screw holes! I just put the Brasso on the hardware, let it sit for a bit, and then scrubbed with a toothbrush (one I'll not be using again, of course :) ).

If, however, you want only natural ingredients, then method 1 is a distant second to Brasso.

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