How to Clean this Bronze?

Looking for some suggestions on how to clean this bronze. Hoping to find an alternative to using a wire brush wheel on my grinder. Maybe soaking or coating with a chemical? Thanks.

Braso

Muriatic Acid, just wear gloves.

Salt and vinegar

After I removed my seacocks my father cleaned them with a mixture of salt and vinegar. He soaked them in the solution and brushed them clean. Cheap and non toxic!

I googled it and there is a lot of information out there on this combination.

Start with a Coca Cola soak. That's right, cola. Then if necessary move on to the vinegar and salt method or silver polish.

just use a sandblaster... fun and takes mins...

Scottwb96 said:

just use a sandblaster... fun and takes mins...

Click to expand...

Breath that sand dust deeply... or use a good mask!

Scottwb96 said:

just use a sandblaster... fun and takes mins...

Click to expand...

From the pile that you have that’s what I’d do (or bead blast). I wouldn’t use a wire brush. The brush is harder than the bronze and you can scratch up the surface.

What’s your goal? Just asking.

I use a metal polish called Blue Magic with a buffing wheel on a drill.

Your castings look sort of rough. I'd give soda or bead blasting a try. It should smooth them down a bit.

pete

Bronze castings were sold , as cast , usually to be painted a dull brown, or polished.


If you are not going to have them polished , the wire brush cleaning will do fine , the slightly rough surface holds paint very well.

Greetings,
Mr. B. I would hesitate before sand or bead blasting. The finish will be matte, extremely difficult and time consuming to polish and to MY eye, is not as attractive as simply removing the patina.

RT - You have the shine-concoction material portions to list??

Greetings,
Mr. A. If you mean the one's in the video, no. It's probably a bit of this and a dash of that. I don't think it's analytical chemistry. More along the same lines as soaking in Coke/vinegar-salt (Mr. c). It's the acid I suspect. Also heard of boiling in vinegar...

Thanks All for the replies. I have some white vinegar on hand so I'm going to soak them in a bucket with some salt. Will post results in a day or two!

"I have some white vinegar on hand so I'm going to soak them in a bucket with some salt." #15

There is vinegar that comes in food concentration and a much more powerful concentration for cleaning.

Some hardware stores have the stronger vinegar.

Greetings,
Mr. FF. Agreed. Vinegar for fish and chips etc. is about 3%. The strongest cleaning vinegar I could find at Home Despot was 6% but found some 10% at local hardware store.
I use the 10% as my "go-to" rust removing solution when I can immerse the parts. An overnight soak has cleaned pretty well everything I've tried (axe heads, saw blades, nuts and bolts etc. Heating the "vinegar" would most probably hasten any chemical reaction (LOTS of ventilation-best outdoors, if possible).


I don't add salt but for bronze or any non-ferrous materials it may be better.

Soaked a few pieces in white vinegar and salt overnight. Very happy with the results. Just need more vinegar and a bigger bucket to finish the rest. Here's a before and after pic.

Wow! Much improved. Are you going to polish them?

In the Navy, we used bug juice (i.e. Koolaid). Buy the little packets (without sugar) for 20-cents each and use those to soak the bronze/brass/copper in. Its a high concentrate of citric acid and works very well, for little money. Tip - use cherry and it gives the metal a nice reddish glow afterwards. Other colors do a similar job.

Greetings,
Mr. B. That's the stuff! Good job. IF you now choose to polish the pieces it should be quite easy with Brasso or something similar.


As I mentioned above, while sand or bead blasting WILL remove the oxidation, the more passive chemical cleaning leaves a surface much smoother if you want to polish.

Beeliner said:

Looking for some suggestions on how to clean this bronze. Hoping to find an alternative to using a wire brush wheel on my grinder. Maybe soaking or coating with a chemical? Thanks.

Click to expand...

Soak in plain yogurt. Make sure yogurt contains live cultures. I discovered this when I spilled yogurt on my bronze faucet. Came out sparkling when I wiped up the spill.

Beeliner said:

Soaked a few pieces in white vinegar and salt overnight. Very happy with the results. Just need more vinegar and a bigger bucket to finish the rest. Here's a before and after pic.

Click to expand...

To speed up the process.. boil them in the vinegar, we use to do this all the time with the horse bits (mostly sweet copper and some brass). From there if you want polish. Don't expect it to last once it hits the salt spray.

Redhook98 said:

In the Navy, we used bug juice (i.e. Koolaid). Buy the little packets (without sugar) for 20-cents each and use those to soak the bronze/brass/copper in. Its a high concentrate of citric acid and works very well, for little money. Tip - use cherry and it gives the metal a nice reddish glow afterwards. Other colors do a similar job.

Click to expand...

Ah yes the best degreaser the Navy could buy. We used that stuff for cleaning everything in the engine, boiler and equipment rooms. Used to laugh at guys on the mess decks for drinking the stuff just for S & Gs. :lol:

Brasso.
Navy used it all the time and it works.
A little elbow grease with it and you get some exercise also!

For the polishing part, I use Never Dull wadding. I prefer it over Brasso.

Unless you intend to keep polishing it, you'll need to clear coat, but IMO that's problematic, because once water gets under the clear coat it requires stripping the clear coat to clean. For inside the cabin it's fine, it's what the manufacturers of clocks and barometers do, but if you've seen an old one you can see where water has migrated under the finish, mainly around the screws and threads. For on deck, just let it go green.

The green verdigris is harmless, by the way.

Beeliner said:

Looking for some suggestions on how to clean this bronze. Hoping to find an alternative to using a wire brush wheel on my grinder. Maybe soaking or coating with a chemical? Thanks.

Click to expand...

Ketchup

Duvie said:

After I removed my seacocks my father cleaned them with a mixture of salt and vinegar. He soaked them in the solution and brushed them clean. Cheap and non toxic!

I googled it and there is a lot of information out there on this combination.

Click to expand...

I second this method, works great

This stuff is excellent at protecting metals. Unlike a "top" coat product that only adheres to the surface and likely to fail as Steve D' stated, this product actually penetrates the surface. I have used this product on everything from metal sculptures to rat rod headers. It's easy to use and works. Looks like you'd be better off ordering online than direct from the manufacturer as they are Covid closed.
https://permalac.com/

Greetings,
Mr. G. Thanks for that. I've never heard of it.