Cleaning up safe plates

Garry Wilson

I have a collection of safe plates in various conditions. The worst have been in a fire.

What is the best way to clean them up without damaging them?

Huw Eastwood

The tamest way to restore back to bright brass without risking damage is with citric acid. For its mildest form use cheap supermarket lemonade or cola. Use separate plastic tubs for different brasses, takes a long time as the acid is so mild.
Use a soft brush like nylon or a toothbrush to get in the recesses, leave overnight and keep checking them. Thoroughly rinse off with water when done.

The ones damaged by fire will depend how much the alloy has discoloured or damaged. Try citric acid in powder form and mix up your own for a stronger brew if needed, very effective and without any of the risks, health, safety or availability issues associated with strong acids or commercial cleaners.

Garry Wilson

Thanks Huw, I will give it a try.

Pschiffe

Garry Wilson wrote
I have a collection of safe plates in various conditions. The worst have been in a fire.
What is the best way to clean them up without damaging them?

There is a commercial product available on this side of the pond that I have been using for decades that works exceedingly well, Iosso Metal Polish:
https://iosso.com/clean/products/metal-polish/
We were buying it in 10 oz. cans but it looks like they now offer only a 3 oz. tube or 1 lb. or 5 lb. cans.

Pete Schifferli

[unknown]

Warren63

It takes a lot of hard work usually. If it’s paint your wanting to remove your best bet is a good paint stripper first of all. Don’t go near Nitromors because it’s now had all the good stuff taken out of it and rendered itself worse than useless. The best stripper I use is exceptionally good (starchem synstryp) but there’s so many different kinds of paint now and again you’ll find one that’s difficult to shift. (Wear gloves because it burns!) After you have removed the paint (several coats of stripper) the world is your oyster. There’s hundreds of different cleaners to use on the raw brass from pure lemon juice, cola,tomato sauce, toothpaste to all the usual proprietary cleaners like brasso or bar keepers friend. It depends on the finish you want, (e.g bright and shiny or dull and reserved). I’ve cleaned and stripped several hundred plaques and you’ll always find one that’s a bummer to do! If your using brasso every week to polish the same plaque it will undoubtedly eventually wear down the brass but as a one off solution to get it shiny I wouldn’t be scared to use it. As for the fire damaged ones they can be a nightmare to clean up. Most times for them I’ve ended up using a cream cleaner and then brasso. The best thing I ever done was to buy a polishing machine. (Bench grinder with polishing mops on!). Always resist from using wire wool or wire brushes as the can cause a lot of damage. If you want to go the gentle way use Huws methods after stripping the paint off. I’m pretty impatient so I go all out to get them done as quick as possible! But you’ll always come across one that won’t go as planned. Best of luck and stick some photos on so we can see the end result. Enjoy!

Pschiffe

Pschiffe wrote
There is a commercial product available on this side of the pond that I have been using for decades that works exceedingly well, Iosso Metal Polish:
https://iosso.com/clean/products/metal-polish/
We were buying it in 10 oz. cans but it looks like they now offer only a 3 oz. tube or 1 lb. or 5 lb. cans.
Pete Schifferli

If you need to remove paint or lacquer from brass prior to polishing, a superior product is Kleen-Strip Premium Stripper. I had been using the convenient aerosol format which I note is now discontinued and it is apparently only available in quart or gallon cans, see link:
http://www.kleanstrip.com/product/premium-stripper
Wear solvent-resistant gloves and chemical splash goggles when using.

Pete Schifferli

[unknown]

Timothy

Not sure if this going to work on your. I have heard that you can using the old cooking hardware with water. Just full with water and set the temperature up high and leave it over night. What it does it soft and loose the paint up. They do have some information on web site about it. This was support to be the old way of using any chemical…..Timothy…..

safeman

Garry Wilson wrote
I have a collection of safe plates in various conditions. The worst have been in a fire.

What is the best way to clean them up without damaging them?

The easiest and quickest way if they are unpainted is by a rotary calico buffing wheel and paste. As advertised they come with a mandrel for attaching to a power drill which you fasten into a vice. If you don’t have a vice you must be perfect.

[unknown]

Tom Gordon

safeman wrote
The easiest and quickest way if they are unpainted is by a rotary calico buffing wheel and paste. As advertised they come with a mandrel for attaching to a power drill which you fasten into a vice. If you don’t have a vice you must be perfect.

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I haven’t heard any caution here so I thought it a good idea to be a party pooper.
i have thousands of different safe plaques.
different plates need different treatment and no way is perfect but:-
any powered abrasive approach is going to remove detail particularly the most delicate or highest detail. This often won’t matter on flat plaques, but pictorial ones are often ruined.
sand blasting removes metal too and leaves a Matt finish as well as often having a funny greenish colour.
paint is best removed by paint stripper, but if the stripper dries out during the process it can leave paint in the crevasses which is chemically changed and won’t react to future stripping. The chemical will often tarnish the metal too which can be minimised by shorter timescales with the chemicals.
acids can be great. There are problems of course if done over ferociously or where the chemicals react more with copper or zinc. The first will leave the surface of the plaque looking silver while the second will leave it looking coppery.
a wire brush is rarely if ever suitable although a brass wired toothbrush type brush can be very useful as can a power washer (plus suitable clamping to stop it being blasted over the neighbours wall.

[unknown]

Warren63

I’ve noticed that sometimes when paint has been stripped from a plaque it leaves the plaque stained/dyed from the particular colour. This seems to be virtually impossible to remove in any other way than the following. I’ve found the best way to remove this is with a cleaning paste such as ‘Astonish pro cleaning paste’ or another called ‘pink stuff’. It’s a paste with tiny particles in that aggressively removes the stain but not quite aggressively as on a polishing wheel. It leaves the plaque with a Matte finish which then can be given a quick polish to the high points or left alone. I only use this method as a last resort and like I say IMHO it doesn’t seem to be quite as aggressive as some of the friction removal methods. Here’s a couple of pics of the last couple of plaques I’ve used it on. I think it’s a great finish and it can be done gradually and doesn’t have to take 100% of the finish off.

Tom Gordon

Warren63 wrote
I’ve noticed that sometimes when paint has been stripped from a plaque it leaves the plaque stained/dyed from the particular colour. This seems to be virtually impossible to remove in any other way than the following. I’ve found the best way to remove this is with a cleaning paste such as ‘Astonish pro cleaning paste’ or another called ‘pink stuff’. It’s a paste with tiny particles in that aggressively removes the stain but not quite aggressively as on a polishing wheel. It leaves the plaque with a Matte finish which then can be given a quick polish to the high points or left alone. I only use this method as a last resort and like I say IMHO it doesn’t seem to be quite as aggressive as some of the friction removal methods. Here’s a couple of pics of the last couple of plaques I’ve used it on. I think it’s a great finish and it can be done gradually and doesn’t have to take 100% of the finish off.

i would always try a 1200 PSi power washer first just incase that did it - it often does once the paint has been chemicalised.
also oxalic acid is top dog for steel or iron - it turns rust into steel (on the surface) and can stay as a protective coating afterwards.

[unknown]

Warren63

Tom Gordon wrote
i would always try a 1200 PSi power washer first just incase that did it - it often does once the paint has been chemicalised.
also oxalic acid is top dog for steel or iron - it turns rust into steel (on the surface) and can stay as a protective coating afterwards.[/.

Not being in the best of health I’ll have to rule out the power washer Tom. But sounds a brilliant idea. I only ever clean a plaque once. So after the paint has been removed I get them up to a level where any staining or cement (quite often) has been removed and then that’s it. I never polish them again because I like the aged brass look. If I buy a one with no paint ant it’s never been cleaned I leave alone, most plaques I buy have more often than not had a clean with brasso many times. So finding something untouched is rare. I can’t say I’ve ever seen any noticeable detail on my plaques that has been removed by cleaning it only once. But saying that I’m not denying that it doesn’t happen, it’s obvious that it does! I’ll have to take a photo of the before and after to see to what extent it does. Whereabouts would a man buy some of the Oxcalic acid you mentioned Tom ? Or is it not available to the general public?

[unknown]

Tom Gordon

Warren63 wrote
Whereabouts would a man buy some of the Oxcalic acid you mentioned Tom ? Or is it not available to the general public?[/QUOTE wrote
Any good pharmacy

[unknown]