• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Cleaning Brass Furniture

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

shaman

40 Cal
Joined
Jan 13, 2022
Messages
165
Reaction score
314
Location
Browningsville, KY
I was looking over my rifle collection the other day, and the though occurred to me that I had not shot my Thompson Center Hawken as it was meant to be ( a .54 roundball rifle) in almost 20 years. Years ago, I bought a Green Mountain drop-in barrel that was rifled for conical bullets, and I shot it that way for some time. Then I bought a modern inline and put the Hawken aside. The original barrel was stashed in the back of the cabinet. It didn't take much to get the barrels swapped out.

Looking over the Hawken, it was far from like-new condition. The big problem was the brass furniture had become tarnished. Years ago, I had encountered the same problem and taken all the brass off the stock and run it through my vibratory brass tumbler and it had all come out bright and shiny. I tried that, but after 24 hours in corn cob, I had little to show for it. My next step was to soak everything in white vinegar. That seems to be getting some of the crud off. Time will tell.

My question for y'all is how do you handle crudded-up brass? Any secrets out there?
 
Easy, peasy….Brasso

86E2517E-18F5-4EC6-8AB1-72503A2C8FFE.jpeg


And a little elbow grease….👍
 
I clean with Brasso or jewelry polish, then I keep a jewelry polishing cloth handy. Wiping stock with furniture wax will help keep it a mello yello.
 
I rarely ever polish the brass and prefer to let it acquire a patina. When I do polish I simply use Brasso. In the Army back in the 1960s we were issued a "Blitz Cloth". It was just a soft cloth that worked chemically (as I recall) and was not abrasive like Brasso. They seldom wore out and there were guys who used the same cloth for over ten years. Mine got lost between then and now and I don't even know if they are still being made. A Blitz Cloth would be my first AND second choice.
 
hanshi, my wife picked up a cloth for polishing at Wal-Mart. It has two different cloths sewn together, one for cleaning and other for polishing. Has several different uses for me.
 
I have used a product called 'Nevr Dull'. It's cotton tow with some sort of chemical. Works on just about any tarnish. I only polish brass on my new builds (show-off), then let them aquire whatever patina they can. I never try to 'age' them; to my eye it always looks phoney (too uniform).
 
Many good cleaning products and all will work.
Have done shiny and have attempted the “mellow aged looked” (not shining) but find the mellowing/aged process looks splotchy and unkept. Maybe I’m not waiting long enough.
But anyway my question: After shining has anyone tried coating shined brass lightly with like a wood paste wax to seal it and keep it shiny?
 
I used to let it tarnish, but I THINK they might have kept it bright in the past. I don’t think it is a hindrance in the woods. So I now shine the brass.
4-0 steel wool, when needed and after a session at the range
 
Last edited:
Does anyone know is it brass or silver that you shouldn't use any cleaning product containing ammonia on ?
 
Back
Top