A great way to give your home a lift is by cleaning your door knobs - they are so rarely cleaned that when you actually get around to it, the difference is palpable. If you are living in a period style or older home, you most likely have brass doorknobs, or at least brass door hardware of some description, whether it is a knocker, lock, lever handle or letter flap. If you would like to clean your brass hardware, but are worried about damaging it, read on for our guide to safely and effectively cleaning brass.
All About Brass
Firstly, brass is a golden-colored metal, made by mixing copper and zinc. It is one of the oldest alloys known to man. In centuries past, brass was produced by mixing copper, quite a common metal, together with calamine, which is a zinc ore. Brass can be mistaken for gold, but often has some brown variegation through its surface. The reason it is used so often in older homes is that it has a relatively low melting point of around 900 degrees, compared to other metals. This sounds like a lot, and you might think that there isn't much difference between 900 degrees and 1100 degrees celcius, after all, they'll both fry you to a crisp quicker than you can squeak, but if you are a blacksmith working an old-fashioned bellows, two hundred degrees makes quite a lot of difference! The second reason is that it is relatively resistant to tarnishing ... and so does not need as frequent cleaning ;-) And the final reason that brass is such a common material is that it is easily recyclable without extensive loss of properties - it is quite easily melted down and reformed into different objects, without a change in color or a weakening of the metal.
There are several different varieties of brass. There is common brass, around 37% zinc, which is easy to work and cheap. Brass which contains around 33%zinc is known as yellow brass; there is also admiralty brass, which contains 1% tin along with 30% zinc. The tin makes the zinc less reactive to chemicals in the environment which might degrade the brass. Aluminium brass also contains around 1% aluminium, for similar reasons to why admiralty brass utilises tin. Any of these sorts of brass are common materials for your door knobs. The other types of brass are used for boiler fireboxes, gunmetal, flexible hoses and bellows, and also fittings like rivets, screws and springs. Brass is not degraded by sunlight, is wear-resistant and cost-effective to create, and is a popular choice for the mechanisms in watches, compassed and clocks.
To Clean Brass Door Knobs
If you haven't cleaned your brass door knobs in a while, scouring them will help give you the best possible finish. However, a word of warning - if your brass has fine detailing, scouring may remove some of this. Use a fine grade of steel wool, not your usual dishscrubber. It is better to scour lightly, for a longer time, than to rub hard and get it all over and done with quicker. This allows you a little more care, and helps ensure that what you are rubbing away is actually dirt, and not the metal or etching.
A good solution to use to clean your brass door knobs is a heaped tablespoon of salt mixed with half a cup of vinegar. This creates a saturated salt solution, and the undissolved salt crystals help to gently scour away dirt, while the vinegar's acid helps to eat away some sorts of dirt. Salt is a great disinfectant, too, helping remove germs from your door handles.
One of the bonuses of having brass door handles, as opposed to door hardware made from other metals, is that brass is fairly nonreactive. If you have regular door handles, without particularly fine detail, you can incorporate the handles into your trip round the house with the disinfectant and dishcloth. If you use harsh or commercial grade products though, it is a good idea to check the directions for what the solution can safely be used on.
Commercial brass cleaners usually do an excellent job, with Brasso, the old stand-by, still as popular as it was when your granny was naught but a babe! Check the ingredients first though if you have detailed brass pieces - if you see ammonia in the list, the cleaner is likely a caustic or alkaline one. If you use these repeatedly, they will leave a residue on the brass which reacts and dissolves it over time. Acidic cleaners (like vinegar) are a better bet. If you are looking for a commercial cleaner other than Brasso, try Autosol Metal Polish.
The exception to the rule of not using caustic cleaning products occurs when you need to restore badly tarnished brass to a usable state. Look for the more expensive or well known brands of brass cleaner, and make sure that you do not leave the product unattended while it has the cleaning solution on. Some products come with their own acid neutraliser, or you could use a vinegar spray on top of the cleaner to help neutralise the alkalinity.
Ultimately, the easiest way to clean your brass is to keep on top of it, and do a little often rather than a lot all at once. If you leave the cleaning for a yearly event, you'll need to use harsh cleaners and run the risk of damaging your piece. If you want your old brass to look new, go gentle, and come again soon!
No comments yet