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Old hardware
Posted by Henry in MI on August 17th, 2003 05:34 PM
In reply to Restoring old door hardware by Linda on August 17th, 2003 02:00 PM [Go to top of thread]
Linda, the first question is how much paint is on your hardware. Most 100 year old hardware usually has at least a bit of paint drips and spatter and you have to strip this off first. I would use something like Citristrip or Peel Away 7 for this, probably the former because of cost and quantity issues, unless you had some of the PA left from another job. Remove the hardware so you can reasonably work on it.
The next step is to find out, using a magnet, if your hardware is solid brass or just brass plated. If it's just plated and you want to restore it, have it professionally stripper and replated. If it is solid brass, vinegar, a mild acid, will remove tarnish. Vinegar will not remove a clear film finish such as lacquer, varnish or polyurethane, which must be removed by stripping as noted above. Lacquer is easier to remove and you may be able to remove this just by soaking in lacquer thinner or wiping it off with lacquer thinner on a rag and you wearing suitable gloves for just a few small parts.
Once the tarnish has been removed by soaking in vinegar, you probably will want to polish at least some of the hardware surfaces. You do this with red jeweler's rouge on a cloth wheel either in a power drill, a drill press, or on a grinder motor.
Once the brass has been polished, it will immediately start to tarnish again. To stop the tarnishing, you need to protect the surface from oxygen which combines with copper to form the tarnish. You will want to wipe the pieces down with naptha, lacquer thinner or paint thinner/mineral spirits to remove any of the jeweler's rouge that remains. Finally, you can spray clear lacquer to prevent future tarnish and let the beauty of the polished or matte brass show through. This all sounds pretty involved but, possibly other than the stripping, it goes quickly. You may be able to get away with doing this on plated steel but you do stand a good chance of polishing through the plating pretty quickly also. If you do lose the plating, replating is not a normal DIY process and something that is better left to the pro's.
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