How To: Clean Your Brass Lights
Most of the brass we use is raw brass and not lacquered. However, as spun brass can easily tarnish (and finger marks appear over time) we have lacquered most of our brass shades and some of our larger sconces. If in doubt, get in touch or, you can see by inspection.
So here is what to do, if your brass light has tarnished beyond what you like and you want to revive the brass to a brighter shade. All our brass is hand polished by us here in the workshop using this exact process, so this works for us.
What you'll need:
- Rubber gloves (I actually forget to wear gloves cleaning brass, but then my hands look well worn now!)
- Fibreless clean cloth x 2
- Brasso
Ensure you take the bulb out and switch off electricity at the board. If its a wall sconce, you may want to slide paper in between wall and sconce to protect wall (hence why turning off electricity is advised!). If in doubt, ask your electrician to do this when he's around next.
Take one of the cloths and add some brass to it, gently rub the brass until you see the tarnish fade away. You could use brass wool, but do ensure its no thicker than grade 00 as it may scratch the surface
Take the 2nd clean cloth and rub away the Brasso ensuring you remove all the residue. I advice you do this step almost immediately after polishing with the Brasso, as if you leave on too long its harder to remove.
Pop your bulb back in, switch electricity back on and voila! That's all we do, but there are polishing waxes out there which can prolong its bright finish for longer.
