Why?

I never thought much about brass until, while repairing my house I took a better look at the old door handles. In time the bad workers painted them layers over layers but I decided to try to restore them to some of their original look.

Start: IMG_8929 * 1200 x 1600 * (1.11MB) , during: IMG_8955 * 1600 x 1200 * (1.11MB) , end:IMG_9024 * 1310 x 1094 * (120KB)

Tools

Here are the tools I used:

  • metal brush (manual)
  • metal wire wheel brush for drill
  • a flame
  • transparent varnish
  • patience

Steps

  • If there is too much and too old paint, burn it before but don’t burn the brass too much as it will be harder to clean
  • Use the metal brush on the item until the clean metal is exposed all over. If you are using a drill make sure you fix the metal piece and protect yourself (especially the eyes). This operation requires a lot of patience. It took me almost 3 hours for 2 complete door handles.
  • Check several times.
  • If you want to make the pieces perfect then you require another step to remove the very small abrasions maybe using some paste cleaning. It was not my case because I wanted to let the pieces show their age.
  • Apply the transparent metal varnish. In my case I applied 4-5 layers of varnish in a period of 24h (depends on your varnish how fast you can reapply a new layer).
  • Enjoy the brass. As a personal note in my case the brass handles gave the doors a very nice look. If I would installed new, perfect, new handles the old doors would have been in terrible contrast but this way they look good together.

Check some more photos.