The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Anybody have any secret chemicals for polishing gold-plated hardware without rubbing half the gold off? Sometimes it can be pretty light in spots and a touch of Brasso or Flitz and it's gone - ouch!!!

thanks, Darrell (nickjay)

I'm sure walt knows some pretty decent ways of handling that, but whenever I've been confronted with gold-plated hardware with corrosion or that black, darkened build-up, I've just let it soak in ammonia for a few minutes, then lightly toweled it off with a soft cloth. that's worked extremely well for me, and I haven't encountered any damage to the gold-plating by that at all.

I've aslo used the sudsy ammonia and in cases where it's really cruddy, VERY LIGHTLY brushed with a soft toothbrush then resoaked in ammonia. It brings great results and never any problems. I've never let the parts soak in ammonia for more than a couple minutes though.

For something big like a tonearm, I've used ammonia and cotton swab.