by Carmel Brulez

Created on: November 01, 2009   Last Updated: November 06, 2009

Cleaning brass and coper without chemicals is easy. You can use products that you probably already have in your kitchen cupboard and use every day for cooking, so there is no need for a drive to the shops. These products are very cheap, much cheaper than the fancy manufactured and expensively advertised solutions they sell in the shops. They are environmentally friendly and safe too.

To begin with you need some old newspapers, which you spread onto the table and place the objects you are going to clean on top of, to save the table getting wet or dirty. When you have finished all of the cleaning you can just roll and screw these bits of newspaper up and throw them away. You also need some clean clothes that are not very thin and not too thick, something like you would normally use to do washing up, absorbent ones. A toothbrush or fairly hard brush such as a painting brush for exterior or indoor decorating is helpful too, if you are cleaning something which has handles, buttons or other small or fiddly parts to it. A small brush is better because it can get into the tiny areas and holes.

You can use any of the following to actually clean your items. Lemon juice is excellent and you may find it helps to thicken it up with some salt or flour if it is too runny, otherwise just make sure the cloth is very well covered with lemon juice and rub it well in. Tomato ketchup works a treat too, and the same applies here. A solution of vinegar mixed with salt is very good. The vinegar cleans the item, the salt acts as a rough abrasive to work into the item being cleaned. If you need to leave a thick paste of whichever mix you chose on the item for a while to work in and clean it thoroughly, that way you can leave one item to soak in the solution while you clean another.

When you have cleaned your brass or copper make sure that you wash it down thoroughly with ordinary luke warm water with some normal washing up liquid in it, just to clean off any residue and remove any smells.

It is best to clean the items regularly rather than let them build up and get very dirty or tarnished, it makes it much easier.

Learn more about this author, Carmel Brulez.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.