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How to polish Sherwood amps copper case

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last one I did got Mother's mag wheel polish. It does oxidize and dull somewhat after a while. My S-7000 has gotten noticeably darker over the years.
 
What about something like TarnX or Brasso? I use Brasso on a Henry rifle and a brass framed revolver, but that's brass. Is the copper electroplated or is the cover solid copper? The TarnX stuff worked well for me on solid copper with a good polish after.
 
That’s very good polish and with enough time and effort it will produce fine results however, it is polish....

Any cleaner and/or polish is gonna change the “color” and there’s a lot of “residue” with soft metals that have tarnished/patina.

I’d also recommend using something like Brasso, maybe even 0000 steel wool in conjunction with Brasso to clean the surface prior to polishing..


Regards,
Andy
 
gadget73 said:
last one I did got Mother's mag wheel polish. It does oxidize and dull somewhat after a while. My S-7000 has gotten noticeably darker over the years.
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Does that take off the burned on fingerprints on the output tube cover? Only need to touch them once to learn.
 
After I polish metal I like to give it a final cleaning with alcohol to remove the residue and a final buff with clean cotton cloth.
 
I think the faded "orang-y brass" color is technically called "patina."

You might try clear lacquer over the freshly cleaned copper to keep it bright and shiny.
 
Lavane said:
What about something like TarnX or Brasso? I use Brasso on a Henry rifle and a brass framed revolver, but that's brass. Is the copper electroplated or is the cover solid copper? The TarnX stuff worked well for me on solid copper with a good polish after.
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Brasso and Noxon are far coarser polishes than Mother's Mag and Aluminum which will polish to mirror bright. I have used all of those, and more, including Blue Magic, 3M polishes, SImichrome, etc.

TarnX is some corrosion reducers and surfactants to better spread. It is not a polish.
 
FauxHall said:
I think the faded "orang-y brass" color is technically called "patina."
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The technical term is "corrosion", being primarily oxidation and sulfidation.

Anytime someone calls it "patina", an extra thirty percent has been added to the base price. In the mideast the bluish copper-oxide coating on brass artifacts to be sold to tourists is achieved with used cat litter, an inexpensive source of ammonia and some organics to add color.
 
JohnT123 said:
After I polish metal I like to give it a final cleaning with alcohol to remove the residue and a final buff with clean cotton cloth.
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I have had excellent results using Citrusolv, which is orange terpenes, which is similar for cleaning to deodorized kerosene.

The old Brasso — with that reference I'm dating myself — used deodorized kerosene as a carrier to remove the oxides and sulfides.

Either solvent may be used to good effect. The terpenes are not especially aggressive and generally (note caveat) won't dissolve paint. But will happily work as a paint stripper for enamels and other rattle-can paints. You don't want to know why I know this. Paint becomes sticky and then comes off. So best for cleaning unpainted objects. After I polish my shower grab bars I remove the residue and the metal gleams. Same for faucets, metal sinks, and other unpainted objects.
 
multichamp12 said:
You might try Nevr-Dull, I used it on brass many times and it’s great. It should work on copper too.
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Here's what I previously wrote about it:

The Nevr-Dull has a very coarse abrasive and removes more of the surface material. The industry term for this is "cutting", and Nevr-Dull is too abrasive to be suitable for museums. The conservation guides deprecate its use.

A finer-abrasive polish is Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish, or the 3M equivalent which only costs more but does not, in my experience and I've tried all of these polishes, work. You can find my writeups elsehwere on AK. This, too, removes material, and it can polish out the fine brushing effects, which merely are very fine scratches, on aluminum.

An easy means to determine the size of a polish's abrasive particles: the brightness of the final finish. Finer particles give a brighter finish, as the scratches are smaller. Mother's Mag creates a mirror-bright finish whereas Nevr-Dull is a soft gloss.

No need exists to pay for wadding polishes, as this is merely an overpriced mix of abrasive, a soap (to complex the removed corrosion), and deodorized kerosene carrier to remove the residue.

The difficulty with removing corrosion on aluminum is that many times the finish is anodized, which is a fancy name for aluminum oxide which is colored with a dye and then has the pores sealed.
 
Retrovert said:
Here's what I previously wrote about it:

The Nevr-Dull has a very coarse abrasive and removes more of the surface material. The industry term for this is "cutting", and Nevr-Dull is too abrasive to be suitable for museums. The conservation guides deprecate its use.

A finer-abrasive polish is Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish, or the 3M equivalent which only costs more but does not, in my experience and I've tried all of these polishes, work. You can find my writeups elsehwere on AK. This, too, removes material, and it can polish out the fine brushing effects, which merely are very fine scratches, on aluminum.

An easy means to determine the size of a polish's abrasive particles: the brightness of the final finish. Finer particles give a brighter finish, as the scratches are smaller. Mother's Mag creates a mirror-bright finish whereas Nevr-Dull is a soft gloss.

No need exists to pay for wadding polishes, as this is merely an overpriced mix of abrasive, a soap (to complex the removed corrosion), and deodorized kerosene carrier to remove the residue.

The difficulty with removing corrosion on aluminum is that many times the finish is anodized, which is a fancy name for aluminum oxide which is colored with a dye and then has the pores sealed.
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Interesting! Thank you, I will be polishing some brass soon, so I’ll try mother’s mag instead!
 
Here's a discussion I previously posted about metal cleaners and polishes.

Metal cleaners and polishes are made from a few simple ingredients:
(1) Mild Acid (commonly citric, sulfamic, oxalic, etc.) to break up the metal oxides, salts, and sulfides so these may be complexed into something soluble.

(2) Surfactant (wetting agent) or Detergent (cleaning agent), such as oleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, to form soluble metallic soaps which will dissolve in the carrier, and to make the polish spreadable across a metal surface by reducing the carrier's surface tension. A Chelating Agent (commonly EDTA) are often added to bind to corrosion oxides and make them soluble in a water carrier, but the chelating agent also is a corrosion inhibitor (see below).

(3) Solvent Carrier (water or petroleum, typically deodorized kerosene or naptha), usually with some petroleum solvent or organic solvent like acetone to better dissolve and remove any polymerized (crosslinked) oils and other dirt, including monomer (the building block for polymers)

(4) Corrosion Inhibitor, commonly EDTA or .benzotriazole. Because EDTA is a chelating agent it binds to the now exposed metal surface preventing oxygen and sulfur from binding, hence corrosion inhibitor. Two for the price of one. Saves money in manufacturing.

(5) Fine Abrasive, commonly added to polish and cleaners to assist in gently breaking up the hard oxide or sulfide layer without removing significant material from the surface.

(6) Thickeners and pH Adjusters. The thickeners make the polish less prone to run off the surface. The pH adjusters prevent excessive acidity or alkalinity from staining the surface or damaging adjacent materials.
​
Now less magick exists in the world.
 
multichamp12 said:
Interesting! Thank you, I will be polishing some brass soon, so I’ll try mother’s mag instead!
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You're welcome.

That is my super-duper top-sekret weapon in the metal-polishing wars..

I have tried all of the others and keep going back to the Mother's Mag and Aluminum. I've used it on silver which looks brand new when I'm done. Many prefer a soft lustre finish on jewelry, which Gorham's Silver Polish (alas, long discontinued) delivered, but for silver utensils I prefer the bright silver as it gleams and sparkles nearly white in the light.
 
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