Cleaning brass portholes

I am restoring classic wooden yacht with brass portholes.Any ideas on how to remove years of verdigris before polishing?

If you have removed the portholes, try soaking them for a few hours in Coca-cola, vineger or lime juice.

If you have to clean them in position, try a damp mixture of fresh (NOT bottled) lime juice and salt.

(nm) = no message, the subject field contains all of the message, so no need to be reading this!

bought from my local "pound shop", for mounting in a drill did it for me. Used at screwdriver speed, they were fast and efficient, leaving no score marks. I would like to know what people recommend for keeping them looking good, other than weekly polishing with Brasso or similar. Would a smear of vaseline or similar do the trick?

Varnish them lightly when they're sparkly clean - this'll stop em going green. Blimey, I should be a poet...

I've found that the verdris (green) still tends appear under the varnish and finally crazing and lifting it away. Albeit after an extended period. I live very close to the sea and find while it does delay the verdigris it seems to be a lot more work to srtip the varnish, clean and recoat in lieu of just polishing on a regular basis. It is possible that I do not get it the squeaky clean necessary in the salty air.

All said and done there appears to be a BIG market for a product (wipe on) that would seal the metal to halt the verdigris occuring. IS THERE ONE?

Using a wax furnisher polish prolongs the shine. It is easier to polish every now and then than having to strip varnish off. Goddard ( the silver polish people) also make an impregnated cloth for copper and brass. It doesn't clean tarnished brass but it will maintain the shine if used regularly.

No really! It will keep a good shine for some considerable time after polishing, the beauty being it cleans off easily next time you want to polish. Unlike varnishing etc, which means a complete strip and re-polish each time.

Try it, nothing much to lose, apart from the boat smelling like a hair salon!

make a harpic paste, brush on, leave until the action ceases. wipe away. the brass should be a pink color which polishes back to brass without too much work.

Another quick and dirty method is ordinary ketchup, straight from the bottle. The acid supposedly does the job. Cliff Moore, SV PELORUS, USA

[Mirelle]

Easy; use kettle descaler.

[Barbican Bill]

Mirelle

Is this a record time taken to think of a reply - by the time you'd posted it all of those contributing to this thread had "Unregistered"!


A good tip, none-the-less, and worth drawing to the attention of the rest of us.

[BrendanS]

I did wonder how he'd managed to resurrect a 4 year old post? You can't even search back more than a year now