Patina Vs Paste

With the brass window frames having cleaned up beautifully, Mike is determined to clean all the brass.  With the teak decks weathered, I kind of preferred the matching weathered look (patina) on the dorades, but he wanted shiny brass.  Since the polishing wheel wouldn't work well on the dorades, we looked for alternative methods.  From the web, Mike tried the ketchup idea and we found where it was a little thick, it seemed to clean off the patina.  Mind you, the brass stilll needed polishing, but it was a big help.  So, being a little thicker acid, we decided to try tomato paste (which we can use in the future no matter where we are).  Here you'll see the dorade have had ketchup rinsed, lathered, and repeated (with tomato paste).

Then we applied the paste right to the patina version and voila!  We had good results.  Here are the before and during pictures.  (The patina is the greenish coating on the brass that is caused by oxidation.)  We'll have to post the final picture later.  I guess we forgot to take one.  You'll see it after the insides are painted!