In my humble opinion, one of the most fun things you can do with your antiques is clean them, and bring them back to the former glory that they once knew and enjoyed when they were young. Being able to see them gleam and shine will give you a much better appreciation of their workmanship and quality, and a greater understanding of what they looked like when they were new.

In this post, I’m talking about polishing antique metalware. Specifically, polishing antique silver, and antique brass. How to do it, why to do it, and how to prolong the shine.

Polishing Metals. Do or Not Do?

This is the same bland, stupid, water-kneed excuse that I find everywhere: “Polishing antique metalware destroys its value!”

Yeah?

Fiddlesticks.

Prove it. Go on, I dare you. Prove it.

As long as I’ve been alive, I’ve been into antiques, and as long as I’ve been into antiques, I’ve heard people wailing this cry like some ancient rain-song for imaginary sky-lords. And y’know what? I just don’t buy it. Never have, never did, never will.

I never will, because of the fact that brass and silver have been polished for centuries in the past, and have, and will, be polished for centuries into the future. Part of the whole reason people BUY brass and silver is to polish them! There’s no point in owning it if you can’t make it look nice. I could show thousands of pictures of antique brassware sold by auction houses, antiques shops, online dealers, professional restorers and eBay sellers, who routinely polish all their brass and silver.

So should you polish, or not?

Honestly, it’s up to you. Just don’t buy into that spiel that polishing it will destroy it. It will not. You only destroy it if you polish it the wrong way, and how to polish silver and brass the right way is part of what this posting is about.

How Do I Polish Brass?

Right. Let’s start with the easy one: Brass.

The go-to polish for brass is BRASSO. Invented in 1905, it’s been the standard brass polish for well over 100 years now, and it still works great for most applications. If you can’t find Brasso, then any good, general-purpose metal-polishing liquid will do.

Polishing brass can be done in a variety of ways. Either with rags, with superfine steel wool, or even just by hand. Which method you use will be determined by what the item is, and how easily it can be polished.

Polishing with a Rag

Polishing your brass with a rag or cloth or paper-towels is the accepted way of doing most polishing. This is good if the piece is large and requires a lot of extensive polishing and you need to cover a big surface-area. Just make sure that you fold the rag or paper-towels regularly, and use a fresh rag or paper-towel when it comes to buffing and polishing, right at the very end.

Polishing by Hand

This method is much messier than polishing with a rag, but in some ways, it’s a lot more fun!

To do this, you will need:

• Brasso.
• A clean towel.
• A bucket of hot, soapy water.
• Something to polish.
• Clean hands.

I generally do this with smaller objects that you can hold in your hands – things like candlesticks, snuffers, brass trays…anything small and made of brass. Just pour a small amount of the liquid polish onto the brass and simply rub it thoroughly all over with your hands!

You will get REALLY messy doing this, and your hands will turn black, but the advantage is that you can rub and polish and clean literally EVERY part of the item, and reach into places which rags and tissues can’t access. This means that the overall finished result will be much better.

Once you’re done polishing really well, and your hands, and the item in question – are black from all the grime you’ve scrubbed off of it, then dump the item (and your hands) into the bucket of hot soapy water and wash the item, and your hands, thoroughly. Then pull out the gleaming piece of polished brass! Finally, dry yourself, and the item, with a towel and give it one last polish. Done!

Polishing with Steel Wool

Polishing brass with steel wool should only be done as a last resort. This is what you use to polish brass which is REALLY tarnished. You found something that’s been in a shed for 50 years. You dug it out of the ground. It’s been up in the attic since before grandpa died. That sort of thing. Only use this method if extensive and exhaustive scrubbing with the first two methods failed to yield any results.

Extremely tarnished brass will not always yield to Brasso alone. It might work, or it might not. Chances are, you could polish the item all day using Brasso, and get nowhere. That’s because of the thick layer of grime that’s dried and encrusted itself onto the metal, which the Brasso just isn’t strong enough to scrape off. That’s where the steel wool comes in.

Now, before you run off and get the steel wool pad that you have in the kitchen, I should clarify that you’ll be using a very specific type of steel wool for this sort of polishing. It’s 0000-grade, superfine steel wool. You can generally find it in any good hardware supplies store. It’s specifically designed for polishing and antiques restoration, so – if used properly – it shouldn’t damage anything.

Start by filling a small dish with liquid metal polish. Rip off a clump of polishing wool and get it into a manageable-sized lump. Dip the steel wool into the liquid polish, and then start scrubbing away at the brass.

If your brass item is really, really, REALLY heavily tarnished, this will take a long time, and quite a bit of elbow-grease. The combination of Brasso and steel wool is, in most cases, more than enough to cut through all this grime, but it requires persistence. Above all, resist the urge to use a coarser grade of steel wool. You’re trying to scrape off the filth – not scratch the brass!

Lacquer Removal

One important thing to keep in mind with antique brass is that some people put lacquer on it. Lacquer is a clear-coat protective fluid that dries on top of the brass, like paint, and provides a layer of protection on the brass against oxidation and tarnishing. It’s important to scrape off any lacquer from your brass before you polish it, because otherwise all you’re doing is polishing lacquer, which isn’t what you want to do.

You can buy specific lacquer-stripping chemicals, or you can use the ultra-fine steel wool to do it instead. You’ll know if there’s lacquer on the brass if you see any sort of cloudy or hazy parts on the metal (that’s where the lacquer is starting to dry and crust up). Just scrape it off like tarnish and then polish the exposed brass underneath.

Once you’re done with the polishing, you can either re-lacquer the brass, or you can do what I do, which is give the brass one final buff-over and polish with…olive oil.

Olive oil will give the brass a slight matte-finish, but it will also protect the brass from excessive tarnish. It’s easier to remove, and easier to put on, helps to clean the brass, and won’t harm it at all. Rub it on thoroughly with a paper-towel and then enjoy the shine!

How Do I Polish Silver?

Polishing silver is a much more delicate proposition than polishing brass, and as such, much more care should be taken in its cleaning. Silver is a much softer metal than brass, and as such it dents and scratches much more easily. Because of this, harsh chemical cleaning agents and abrasives of any kind should be avoided when trying to polish and clean your silverware.

When it comes to cleaning silver, you should use the softest and least aggressive polishing compound or liquid possible. Many people use, and swear by ‘silver foam’. It generally comes manufactured by two brands: Haggerty’s, and Goddard’s.

Silver foam is a bit like liquid-soap for silver. It’s a soft paste that comes in little plastic jars. Scoop a bit out and rub it onto the silver. Just like with Brasso, you can decide to do this with a rag, or with your bare hands, depending on what the piece is.

After rubbing the paste on and polishing off all the tarnish, then you can simply wash the paste off with warm water. It starts to lather up a bit when you do this (hence the name ‘silver foam’), but basically it just washes off just like any other regular soap. Then simply dry the object with a soft towel.

Of course, silver foam is a very gentle polishing agent. Don’t expect it to remove anything especially harsh. If you have something on your silverware that you just cannot get off (like glue residue or staining from a price-tag or something like that), then you can use SILVO (the silver brother of BRASSO), but this should be a last resort.

Silvo is meant to be used for polishing steel, chrome, pewter, silver and other white metals, but it is quite tough stuff. The smell alone when you open the bottle is proof of that! Using the smallest amount of Silvo possible (like, a few drops), is enough to clean off most hard, stubborn stains or marks on your silverware. But don’t use this to polish the entire piece. It’s quite abrasive as a polish, and it will rub away fine details like engravings, hallmarks and other decorative features.

General Polishing Tips

When polishing metal – gold, silver, brass, bronze…whatever…there are certain things you should always keep in mind.

The first thing is to use the right polishes and the right techniques. Always start with the most gentle option first, and then progress to the more aggressive ones.

Make sure that whatever you’re polishing is bare metal, and not plate. Polishing silver plate or nickel plate or chrome plate, or brass plate will just wear it off and expose the metal underneath, which can sometimes look really unsightly. Look for scuff-marks and wear-spots, to see whether or not something has been plated or not. In most cases, real silver will come with hallmarks, although they’re often well-hidden, so scope the piece out with a strong magnifying glass to be sure.

Apart from that, general polishing advice is to polish as infrequently as possible. Polish once, polish well, and then leave it alone! You shouldn’t need to polish something again for several months or even years, if you’ve done it properly. Excessive polishing damages fine details and rubs away engravings, marks and patterns. That’s the last thing you want to do!