Whether you’ve inherited a beautiful piece of brassware from a grandparent, or you simply enjoy collecting brass pieces in your home, knowing how to clean them and keep them stain-free is important. Unfortunately, brass tends to discolour, that’s a fact. But if you follow our easy tips on how to clean brassware, you’ll keep your beautiful heirlooms looking brilliant for a long time.
Read this blog for tips on how to clean brassware at home, the best natural methods to use and how best to protect your brassware from rust.
What is Brass and Why Does it Stain?
Brass is known as a metal alloy – like copper and zinc. As a metal, brass undergoes a chemical reaction when exposed to air (or oxygen more specifically). This reaction causes the brass to tarnish or stain over time. If brass has tarnished severely, it can actually rust too.
Best Brass Cleaning Products and Methods
Once again, there are a few pantry-cupboard staples that are going to work wonders when it comes to knowing how to shine brassware. Here are our top three:
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White Vinegar – once again this versatile ingredient is going to get your best results when it comes to using a natural cleaner. The acid in the vinegar helps to remove the stains from the brass. Simply dab vinegar onto a soft, dry cloth, and use that to rub the brassware in circular movements to remove the tarnish.
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Lemon Juice – again the acidity of the lemon juice helps to break down the stains on brass. Squeeze the juice of a lemon or two into a bowl and place a dry, soft cloth into it. Squeeze it out and use it to clean the brassware. This method also works really well for silverware too.
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Baking Soda – once again, the third natural ingredient for cleaning brass (and getting rid of just about any other stain for that matter) is baking soda. Make a paste with baking soda and warm water and rub it onto the brassware.
Of course, if you don’t have these natural products at home, you can also use commercial brass cleaning products and polishes for excellent results too.
How to Protect Brassware from Rust?
The best way to prevent rust from getting into your brass, is to prevent it from starting in the first place. Rust occurs when brass has not been cleaned, polished and oiled for a long time. Reactions with the oxygen and brass over time can create small holes in the brass, which over even more time become bigger ones. Here’s what to do to stop your brass from rusting and tips on how to polish brassware too:
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Keep your brassware oiled – keeping your brass well oiled and looked after is going to be the number one way to prevent it from rusting. You can use a commercial brass oil that can be applied to the brass once it’s been cleaned and polished. Or simply use Linseed Oil as a natural alternative to commercial products. We recommend polishing, cleaning and oiling your brassware once every two to three months for best results.
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Polish your brassware well – oiling really is the last step in the process of keeping brassware looking its best. Polishing is an important step after cleaning in order to get the brass to shine. Using the natural methods above, you can polish brass up to a wonderful shine – just make sure you always use a soft, dry cloth to polish it or invest in a brass polishing brush.
Read our articles for more home cleaning tips today!
