Stop a brass table from tarnishing
Our how-to guru advises a reader who is tired of having to polish this brass table so often.
Q I have three engraved brass tables that require a lot of effort to polish, and then they tarnish after a few weeks. I have used a kit that restores brass and protects it, but it did not last long. I have heard that spraying it with lacquer will protect the brass, but I am not sure what product to use and do not want to do something that will cause more problems. Can you help?
A You’re right: Spraying with lacquer is the way to keep brass from tarnishing so quickly. Mohawk’s Lacquer for Brass, formerly marketed as Behlen Lacquer for Brass, is designed especially for this use, as the name implies. A 13-ounce spray is available in Canada through Richelieu Hardware and other select locations. (richelieu.com/ca).
Phillip Pritchard, technical service representative for Mohawk Finishing Products (mohawk-finishing.com), said this is a traditional nitrocellulose lacquer formulated with a resin that sticks especially well to brass, as well as ingredients that help keep brass from tarnishing. “You won’t get those two features in standard lacquer,” he said. “Standard lacquer will flake off, while ours does not. Standard lacquer may lie there and seem okay, but you can take your fingernail and it will shear right off.”
However, he added that the product isn’t marketed as an industrial-quality finish and that the company doesn’t guarantee that it will stop tarnish forever. Hardware manufacturers that offer long-term guarantees against tarnishing use a bakedon lacquer finish, which is more durable. “But in an air-dry product, our lacquer is as good as it gets,” Pritchard said.
If your tables do eventually tarnish after you spray them with lacquer, there’s an easy, if smelly and messy, remedy: Use a chemical stripper labelled as effective against lacquer to take off the finish, polish off the tarnish and re-spray.
Lacquer for Brass is a solvent-based product, so be sure to read and follow the safety precautions on the label. Work outside, if possible. To ensure an even finish, clear the nozzle by spraying for a second or two on scrap paper before you begin to spray your tables. And keep the can aimed at the same angle as you move your body back and forth to pass over the surface; don’t just tilt the can in different directions.