Brass tarnish

[oldtvsandtoys]

Ok you just spent all day polishing your brass horn. Now how do you stop it from tarnishing again. Whats the best stuff to use on the brass?

[WDC]

To my knowledge the only way to preserve it for a prolonged time would be clear spray paint, which I personally strictly oppose. I usually polish once a year with Brasso and Nevrdull. But maybe I have missed that miracle product.

[briankeith]

I like the look of aged brass - I like things that look their age. Clean yes, refinished or highly polished, no way.

[phonogfp]

Ok you just spent all day polishing your brass horn. Now how do you stop it from tarnishing again. Whats the best stuff to use on the brass?

Here we go again! Before the debate over brass gets into full swing, the answer to your question is spray lacquer. Should you go this route, be aware that often when it's first sprayed on, it will look bad. Give it a few minutes and it will clear up. And the beauty of the lacquer is that it's easily removed with lacquer thinner.

Here's last year's thread on this:

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... lish+brass

George P.

[estott]

Old clear coat finishes will yellow with time and this is what gives some old brass pieces a golden tone.

[Henry]

My advice: don't mess around, take it to a competent brass instrument repairperson. They do this kind of refinish work all the time (if you ever were in a marching band, you know why) and are good at it. Need a recommendation? Ask your high school band director or area professional brass player, if you know any.

[FloridaClay]

Ah yes, one of those subjects that is, at bottom, mostly subjective and upon which no group of collectors is likely to agree. Same thing with wood finish restoration issues. And it seems to run in cycles. As with auto collecting. Sometimes a 100 point restoration is the desired result and at others it is leave that super grungy barn find alone. The pendulum seems to be swinging toward the latter at the moment, but who knows how long that will be fashionable?

I guess my own view is that collectors can agree to disagree and leave it at that. "Whatever floats your boat."

Clay

[artglass86]

I straiten and polish only if the piece is dented or discolored. If you use laquer, it will look OK for a while, but it's no life time finish. I found after polishing, a good car wax lasts longer & looks better than anything.

[Nat]

Kind of O/T, but I'm in the midst of my annual polishing phase with all the brass in the house - fire tools, candlesticks, the name-plaque on the clock Dad won in 1927 - and there's something really wonderful about the deep glow you get on brass (and silver) when it's been lovingly polished over and over through the years.

For the record, I use brasso, which is supposed to leave a tarnish-resisting film on the brass.

[wjw]

Knowing but little here, I'll add my two cents:

I have lacquered brass in the past but found it doesn't last long enough to justify the work in getting it off later to re-polish. The musical instrument guys do a much better job than I can.

I have two brass horns that had spots of malignant corrosion here and there and I polished them as high as I could. Afterwards I wiped them down with the oily "wadding" like Neverdull. Now I can use the Neverdull stuff to maintain them every couple of years or so. They have a nicely neglected warm lustre nowadays. The higher the polish you can attain, the easier it is to maintain.

I wonder what I could have used to kill the corrosion without polishing the horns? It really was a lot of work.