Bronze cabinet pulls and hydrogen peroxide ?

Question

I have these really great, old bronze cabinet pulls but the problem is theyve turned black with age and grime. I can sort of scratch through the layers a bit and I have one out of the set thats still much more shiney and grime free, I was wondering if I could soak the black ones in hydrogen peroxide to make them look like new again ? Could anything bad happen ? Or would you suggest cleaning them some other way ?

Answer 1

Brasso. Should be able to find it at any hardware store.

Answer 2

Well. Bronze stuff is tough because there are so many ways of faking that finish. Could be solid brass with a dark varnish, a bronze plate with dark varnish, some sort of weird lacquer on top of steel or die-cast pot metal. For all anyone knows, they could be bronze.

So first of all, try detergent and water. That'll get off the grease and all water-soluble crud off. If that's insufficient, you'll have to resort to chemical attack. I didn't know you could use H2O2 to clean much of anything. Try rubbing alcohol first and see if that does anything--it'll take off any shellac-based finish, so watch it.

In general, the most aggressive way to treat brass or copper is to put it in a plastic bag and add household ammonia. This will turn blue in a few hours, and even the worst corrosion will dissolve. However, this won't get below a layer of varnish, which should be first removed with some sort of paint-stripper--oven cleaner works, or lacquer thinner will usually do it. Bear in mind that the varnish may have been dark in the first place and thus contributed to the original look of the pulls.

Once you get the worst of the crud off, any brass polish will bring up the shine, if it's shine you want. Otherwise, you'll have to experiment with various varnishes to get the pulls to look like they did when they were new.

Answer 3

Do not use hydrogen peroxide on anything metal - it will corrode.
Go to the hardware store, and ask them to recommend the best product - use a little brush, and some Qtips to get the crevices.