Removing heavy tarnish from brass

[Al 1]

Tomato Ketchup will do it. Spread it on and wrap with plastic. Let them sit for a few hours and check. It may take a few applications. Scrub with brush between applications. Al.

 

[homebrewed]

Tarn-X works OK on (real) silverware and copper cooking items. It chemically removes tarnish but can leave a dull surface. You likely would need to follow up with polish.

 

[hman]

Active ingredients in Tarn-x: Thiourea and sulfamic acid. pH is close to 0.85 to 1.05, so very acidic. The thiourea is an ammonia-like compound, so that's probably the principle of its action.

http://archpdfs.lps.org/Chemicals/Tarn-X_tarnish_remover.pdf

 

[savarin]

Here we go, first report back.
How they looked originally


Whilst they were festering in the salt, flour and vinegar mix for 2 days only.


After washing off the festering mix only and rubbing with my thumb


It was interesting how the shaft on the top fork and the handle of the bottom one looked as if they were copper.
I gave it a quick touch on the buffing wheel and up came the brass look.
Now some polishing, I wonder where I've heard that before.

 

[Cadillac STS]

Suppose you put yeast in the mix? Would the CO2 bubbles help the vinegar get to small crevices or would the bubbles pull it away from the surface and not work as well?

 

[savarin]

I made the mix like a sloppy mess rather than a thick paste so It did get into all the crevices.

 

[CluelessNewB]

Suppose you put yeast in the mix? Would the CO2 bubbles help the vinegar get to small crevices or would the bubbles pull it away from the surface and not work as well?

My guess is the vinegar would kill the yeast in short order. Making an environment inhospitable to the growth of microorganisms is one of the reasons we use vinegar to make pickles.

 

[hman]

Either that or classic "green beer"

 

[savarin]

I made a saturated solution of vinegar and salt to try out on copper.
Heres the original kettle, the lid was submerged in the mix for approx 3 mins, washed in clean water then buffed on the cloth wheel for all of 4 mins total.

Pretty good even if I do say so myself.
BUT,
heres the new info that surprised me.
The stainless steel bowel I used to mix the ingredients looked like this after 20 mins.

The photo is after I scrubbed it with kitchen abrasive cleaner.
Thats two things I have found that dissolve stainless, the above salt and vinegar mix and liquid aluminium.

 

[hman]

Bummer about your bowl. I wonder if there was some galvanic action going on between the copper and the (chromium rich) stainless steel.

PS - It took me a while to figure out that the blindingly white object in your first photo was the lid ... reflecting light!