I have several bronze deck fittings.
I have noticed there are two forms of "patina": brown (which I believe is copper oxide) and green (which I believe is copper sulphate). The brown is tight and smooth, the green soft and crumbly. I have found that if I remove the green (using bronze wool soaked in light oil) and leave the brown, the brown becomes more widespread and the green less widespread perhaps eventually leading to no maintenance (in my dreams anyway). This has happened to my ship's clock, more protected down below. I polished it thoroughly when I first got it and cleaned it from time to time, removing any green but careful to avoid removing brown. Now it is all brown and I have not found any green for years. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek FL > [Original Message] > From: Steve Weinstein <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Date: 2/25/2010 2:03:16 PM > Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] cleaning brass - ketchup??? > > As I was working my finger to the nub with an old discarded t-shirt and > ketchup - and not getting anywhere (no, I didn't try boiling it in ketchup - > yet!) - my wife came in and handed me a container of "Noxon" silver polish > telling me to try it. I looked at the label and it allegedly was good for > brass also - so what the hell.... > > BINGO! Works like a charm! I can see that this little project could take a > while since you've got to apply some serious fingertip pressure with the rag > with the gunk on it but the result is nice shiny brass. A great project for > sitting around the fireplace 'till the weather warms up. As soon as I'm > finished with the polishing I intend to lacquer brush all surfaces and see > how long that lasts. > > Someone also suggested using clear varnish. Any thoughts on that??? > > ____ _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
