bronze cleaning/polishing

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Hello everyone. Yes,i am aware of the number of threads concerning the subject,but i was curious how the scotch brite treatment works. Does anyone have any photos of their helmet that has been (de)polished with it?
Also,is there a way to clean from handprints without the use of abbrassives? Like rubbing with something soft or anything? For some reason i've found that my bronze helmet suffers more from handprints than my brass one! So any suggestions? I don't really have a rust problem yet,and olive oil protects nicely from handprints,but not completely.
Khairete
Giannis

[Dan Howard]

a soft cloth and non abrasive polish works fine. it just takes more effort. Get some renaissance wax to protect it once it has been polished.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Good question Giannis, I have the same issue with my Boeotian!

Dan, what is renaissance wax ?

OK, I have found a link to some..... :roll:
http://www.picreator.co.uk/articles/3_r ... ce_wax.htm

[Matthew Amt]

I never use ScotchBrite pads or other abrasives on my finished bronze or brass stuff! For steel armor and helmets, yes, I go with the satin finish, but I think a higher shine is correct for copper alloys. So I use mostly Nevr-Dul. Or if necessary I'll buff it with T-6 "Tripoli" buffing compound on my electric buffer (which is how I bring a new piece up to its final polish). Polishes like Brasso or Simichrome will work, too.

Fingerprints are bad! I have found it very helpful to rub the metal with a clean cloth right after it's been handled. That won't eliminate the appearance of handprints, but it will cut down on them. I tend to carry my helmets to events in wool bags, and I just give each one a good wipe with the bag before packing up.

Khaire,

Matthew

[Dan Howard]

Renaisance wax is handy if it is going to sit on display for a long time. If you are regularly using/handling it then do what Matt says

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Thanks for the replies!
I tried rubbing with a piece of wool cloth with no efect. Fingerprints won't go. Overal the helmet is polished,it's generally fingerprints that are bad and in some places,mostly to the sides where i need to hold the helmet in order to put it on,fingerprints have turned it almost blue-black near the edge!
Brasso i have heard that leaves traces,green marks or something. But that might have been for scale where a certain amount of it can't be spread?
In the end i think i will purposely fill it with fingerprints so that it won't be efected by them anymore :lol:
Khairete
Giannis

[Dan Howard]

Just look for a non-abrasive polish. Anything that is designed for silver will work fine for bronze. On my Dendra panoply I use something called "ezy-bright" by o-cedar. The label reckons that it doesn't include any "harsh chemicals" but I mainly picked it because of its nice lemony smell 8)

[Athena Areias]

I use Brasso and Nevr-dul. They both work, but can take lots of time and effort. The Brasso is "creamy" and leaves a film to be polished off (like good car wax). You can see where you've been. It turns blackish as it pulls off the tarnish. You repeat until it stays mostly whitish. You can rinse away the residue (perhaps that's where the green came from).

The Nevr-dul is a clear liquid impregnated into cotton batting. You just pull off a piece and polish. The cottonn also turns black as the tarnish comes off. Use new pieces as needed. What do the military folks use to polish up their dress uniform bits? Nonabrasives take work and elbow- grease. You go round and round and round and suddenly the marks are gone.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

You also get brasso in a can of impregnateted cloth too. They also do a silver polish, can't recall if it's called Silvvo though, but comes in same type of can, wit hsilver swirls insteaqd of goldn/copper ones.

[jvrjenivs]

You also get brasso in a can of impregnateted cloth too. They also do a silver polish, can't recall if it's called Silvvo though, but comes in same type of can, wit hsilver swirls insteaqd of goldn/copper ones.

Yeah, its called Silvo. Work fine to clean up silver. But I've found that on all the items in our group that were cleaned with brass they got a green residue layer on top of them, especially nasty at the edges. So, I polished them all up again like I do with new stuff (electric polishing wheel with polishing past in different grades) and now we clean them using just polishing cloth. No polishing compound at all. Also, I got good results using the very fine steelwool.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I also polish my bronze boetian wit ha silver polishing cloth, which has some compound in it, but it is not like the Brasso/Silvo, and does not leave a residue at all. I can't recall the exact brand, but Peronis does. He gave me one for my silvered Velson plates.
I recently discovered it works well with bronze.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

and now we clean them using just polishing cloth. No polishing compound at all

Hey,is that a specific kind of cloth and you buy it as that? Does it give high polish or it buffs it a bit? I would like the idea of not using any polishing compound,just fabric,even if it takes longer to clean. And the wax that Dan mentioned might give best protection,but i think that olive oil works reasonably fine. I don't wish to have my helmet like an untuched mirror forever,but i still found that the fingerprints spread too much for such a short time.
Khairete
Giannis

[Doc]

It is important with brass cleaning pastes to make SURE you remove it or it will eat away at the surface and you will see green.

The never dull works great. When I was in JROTC, that is what we used for brass buckles.I did not know that they still made this stuff. I have to buy it for some of my brass items.

Matt, I agree with abrasives for iron. I use 0000 steel wool and then I use 3 in 1 machine oil for the helmet. With such a fine steel wool you get a dull shine not satin which would require a coarser steel wool. For my manica, I also use this ultra fine steel wool. It cleans it well and gives it a natural metallic shine. I also think that some copper alloy items would have been nice with a high shine such as musculata, certain helmets, and some scabbards. A manica, I do not think was a high style priority item nor were the scutum edges. Maybe the umbos if they were brass and had decoration. Brass scale armor? That is debatable since the dull or satin finish scales look nicer since the oxidized surface gives it more chartacter but then again shiny scales are also impressive. I think that glossiness was used when necessary like a parade event.

[Athena Areias]

Giannis,

Yes. A polishing cloth is a bought item. Jewellers use them to polish silver, gold, platinum, bronze/brass. They have a gentle compound in them to clean. Mine is two sided. One side is red and you can feel the compound. The other side is a soft flannel to buff after cleaning. You can buy them on-line (Google) from jewellers supply houses. Also, here in the USA, K-mart, Target, and mall kiosks (jewellry) sell them. I forgot all about mine! I'm gonna dig it out tonight!

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Thanks,then i will ask some friends that are jewellers,they will know where to point me. I already know some shops for jewellers' equipment through them. It sounds handier than having to apply any kind of product and then clean it.
Khaire
Giannis