3390. To Give a Golden Color to Brass

3390.    To Give a Golden Color to Brass. A mixture of muriatic acid and alum dissolved in water imparts a golden color to brass articles that are steeped in it for a few seconds.

3391. Paste to Clean Brass

3391.     Paste to Clean Brass. Soft soap, 2 ounces; rotten-stone, 4 ounces; beat them to a paste. Or: Rotten stone made into a paste with sweet oil. Or: Rotten-stone, 4 ounces; oxalic acid, 1 ounce; sweet oil, 1 1/2 ounces; turpentine enough to make a paste.. The first and last are best applied with a little water. The second, with a little spirits of turpentine, or sweet oil. Both require friction with soft leather.

3392. To Clean Brass Inlaid Work

3392.    To Clean Brass Inlaid Work. Mix Tripoli and linseed oil, and dip into it a rubber made of a piece of an old hat, with which polish the work and rub off with clean soft leather. If the wood be ebony or rosewood, polish it with a little finely powdered elder ashes; or make a paste of rotten-stone, a little starch, sweet oil, and oxalic acid, mixed with water. The ornaments of a French clock are, however, best cleaned with breadcrumb, carefully rubbed, so as not to spoil the wood-work. Ormolu candlesticks, lamps, and branches, may be cleaned with soap and water. They will bear more cleaning than lacquered articles, which are spoiled by frequent rubbing, or by acids or strong alkalies.

3393. Solutions to Clean Brass

3393.      Solutions to Clean Brass. Finely powdered sal-ammoniac; water to moisten. Or: Roche alum, 1 part; water, 16 parts. Mix. The articles to be cleaned must be made warm, then rubbed with either of the above mixtures and finished with fine Tripoli. This process will give them the brilliancy of gold.

3394. Solution for Cleaning Brass Chains

3394.    Solution for Cleaning Brass Chains. Mix together 1 ounce sulphuric acid, £ ounce nitric acid, 1/2 drachm saltpetre, and 1 ounce rain water, and allow the solution to repose a few hours. Pass the article to be cleaned rapidly through the solution, and immediately wash it thoroughly with rain water. Dry in sawdust. This process will make old and discolored chains look as good as new.

3395. To Clean Very Dirty Brass

3395.    To Clean Very Dirty Brass. Rub some bichromate of potassa fine, pour over it about twice the bulk of sulphuric acid, and mix this with an equal quantity of water.

Wash immediately in plenty of water, wipe it, and rub perfectly dry, and polish with powdered rotten-stone. By this method the dirtiest brass may be made immediately bright.

3396. To Give Brass Ornaments a Fine Color

3396.    To Give Brass Ornaments a Fine Color. Brass ornaments, when not gilt or lacquered, may be cleansed, and a fine color given to them, by two simple processes. The first is to beat sal-ammoniac into a fine powder, then to moisten it with soft water, rubbing it on the ornaments, which must be afterwards rubbed dry with bran and whiting. The second is to wash the brass work with roche alum boiled to a strong lye, in the proportion of 1 ounce to 1 pint; when dry, it must bo rubbed with fine Tripoli. Either of these processes will give to brass the brilliancy of gold.