Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1893 — How to Clean Brass. [ARTICLE]

How to Clean Brass.

Brass, to he kept in proper order, should be cleaned at least once a week, while it is the custom in households with well-trained aomestics to have brass and irons, fenders and other fireplace furniture given a light rubbing every day. In cleaning brass it must first be relieved of all canker and other spots to which the metal is subject from contact with acids, exposure to water or other causes. An application of alcohol, spirits of terpentine, benzine or kerosene will generally remove all ordinary spots on brass, unless very old spots, the metal in some cases seeming so perfectly to. absorb foreign substances that the removing of them amounts almost to an impossibility. Spots removed, there is no more certain cleansing and polishing application for brass than rotten stone and oil. Botten stone usually comes in lumps. Before using for polishing brass it must be reduced to powder, and in this state is quickly disolved to a smooth consistency when mixed with olive oil. A thin paste of the preparation should be rubbed lightly on the metal, and when perfectly dry it should be rubbed off vigorously with a flannel cloth, the finishing polish being given with the powder dry, and subsequent rubbing with a clean flannel cloth or chamois skin.