MTFCA Forum

We had our March Shop Day today. No one brought anything to work on so we tester’s brass polish. I have a dozen samples I made some years ago. It’s just brass sheet attached to a short piece of 1x4. The last test was several years ago so the test pieces had a decent tarnish to them. Here’s what we tried in order of what we felt worked best.

1 - Maas. This was also the winner of our last test
2 - Flitz.
3 - Blue Magic
4 - Wenol Red
5 - Mother’s Billet

Any of these will give you a decent shine. Maas won previously because it stayed shiny longer than the others.

I feel the Mother’s Mag Wheel polish works better than the Billet polish but we didn’t have any.

We tested some others that people had picked up at car shows and stuff but they pretty much all required too much work or just cleaned the brass. For instance I use Noxon on highly tarnished brass before using another polish for shine. I do this because the polishes that get shiniest generally don’t clean as well.

I personally use blue magic because I feel it doesn’t require quite as much effort.

We probably didn’t use every polish used on this forum, but it was what we had.

Andy

Brass-o & semi-chrome. I may be doing this all wrong but I add a couple of coats of wax after polishing?
Craig.

For heavily tarnished brass, I use Bar Keepers Friend cleanser and then follow-up with Brasso or Simichrome. Bar Keepers Friend has mild abrasives and oxalic acid and will quickly remove the brownest of tarnish.

I inherited a bottle of Noxon 7 Metal Polish when I bought my house years ago. It's good stuff and I use for certain things. Unfortunately, it was discontinued a few years ago. I go to a lot of estate sales and that's where I pick up a lot of "sundries" like mineral spirits/paint thinner, WD-40, denatured alcohol, motor oil, 2-cycle oil, Brasso, etc. for cheap. If I ever come across a bottle of Noxon, I'll be sure to pick it up.

We didn’t test brasso. Like Steve, I used gallons of brasso during my time in the Marines. The new stuff isn’t the same.

I also use Noxon for initial cleaning of highly tarnished brass. It’s discontinued. I have used barkeeper’s friend, but the follow up is more work to get out the minute scratching. When the Noxon is gone I’ll probably fallback on the vinegar/salt/flour mix for the heavy tarnish. What worries me is Salt and Vinegar removes tarnish and kills weeds, but it also my favorite potato chip flavor.

I haven’t tried it but I would assume properly applied wax would help, but don’t let anyone talk you into lacquer.


Andy

You might try some "Brite Boy" polish. I have had good results with it.

I think it would help to categorize products that are "tarnish removers", the brown patina, versus "polishes", dull brass patina, shinny.
Some of the dialog above does this.


Wasn't familiar with NOXON so I did a some web surfing

https://www.rbnainfo.com/product.php?productLineId=435

Ingredients
Water
Diluent: Adjusts the concentration of ingredients in a product to deliver target benefits.
CAS #: 7732-18-5
Calcium Carbonate
pH Adjuster: Controls the pH level of a product to ensure stability and maximize performance.
CAS #: 1317-65-3
Oxalic Acid Dihydrate
pH Adjuster: Controls the pH level of a product to ensure stability and maximize performance.
CAS #: 6153-56-6
Pumice
Polish Ingredient: Imparts shine or gloss to a surface.
CAS #: 1332-09-8
Tall Oil
Polish Ingredient: Imparts shine or gloss to a surface.
CAS #: 61790-12-3
Isopropyl Alcohol
Solvent: Solubilizes or dissolves at least one other substance to form a solution.
CAS #: 67-63-0
This ingredient appears on one or more Designated Lists:
CA Non-Cancer Hazards Chemicals that are identified with noncancer endpoints and listed with an inhalation or oral reference exposure level by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 44360. more info…
Ammonium Hydroxide
pH Adjuster: Controls the pH level of a product to ensure stability and maximize performance.
CAS #: 1336-21-6
This ingredient appears on one or more Designated Lists:
CA Non-Cancer Hazards Chemicals that are identified with noncancer endpoints and listed with an inhalation or oral reference exposure level by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 44360. more info…
AOEC Asthmagens Chemicals designated as asthmagens by the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics. more info…
Aluminum Magnesium Silicate
Thickener: Enhances the structure of a product.
CAS #: 1327-43-1
C13-14 Isoparaffin (Aromatic Mineral Spirits)
Solvent: Solubilizes or dissolves at least one other substance to form a solution.
CAS #: 64742-47-8

Still available
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I found Flitz is good for nickel. If really bad, apply ketchup first to loosen it up.

I have polished all the brass on the early cars at the Rolling Through Time Auto museum. My go-to is Simichrome. It gives a better finish, with the least amount of work. (and polishing brass is a LOT of work!) The shine also seems to last a longer time than with other polishes. I started volunteering and polishing brass there last October, and the ones I did then still look good, and it has now been 6 months in. EVERYTHING gets polished on them, from the lights, hubcaps, and radiator, down to the windshields, and horn tubes and mounts. I am now down to a few tail-lights, and some windshield frames, plus some other small detail parts.

Steve Jelf wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 09, 2025 11:56 am

When I was in the army sixty years ago Brasso was the go-to we all used. No more. The stuff bearing that name today is NOT the same, and there are several polishes I consider MUCH better. I use Mothers because it is ubiquitous, easier than most, and inexpensive. I have tried most of the others that turn up in these discussions, and found there may be a few that are slightly better in some minor way, but lack one or two of the qualities I mentioned.

When I was in the Marines from 1972-‘77, the only brass polish we were issued was a universal metal polish called “Dura-Glit”. You know how Marines are about their brass, so it was the best! It was a can of cotton wadding saturated with clear chemical metal polish. You would pull off a piece of the wadding and polish your brass, silver, gold, nickel, or other metal, then wipe and polish with a soft cotton rag. I don’t believe it is still available in the United States as “Dura-Glit”, but I have found the same product in America called “Nevr-Dull”. It smells like I remember Dura-Glit smelling and polishes brass and other metals to a bright shine as it did when I was in the Marines.

Dura-Glit ingrediants
A registered trademark for abrasive polishing pads. Duraglit® is a thick cotton wadding pad embedded with micro-fine aluminum oxide abrasives. It is moistened with mineral spirits.

Nevr-Dull ingredients
Nevr-Dull polish is made of cotton wadding that's soaked in a solution that contains mineral spirits, aluminum oxide, calcium carbonate, and other ingredients

I have used Flitz repeatedly over the past two years however my biggest dislike with it, -along with Semi-chrome & Wenol is they all work well on polishing tarnished or dull brass ...however they don't seem to maintain the brass' shine very long after using the product. For me, I typically polish all of the brass on my cars before I take them on a tour or show, and none of the products mentioned above tend to maintain the shine much longer than a few days. While I am sure some folks here need to have tarnish removed from brass but I would think many of us are not really removing heavy tarnish but are actually repolishing brass to make it gleam again. So which product is better at maintaining the polished brass?

FWIW, I just purchased a product off of Social Media that not only polishes well but has a separate bottle of a Sealer. I have not used it yet to know the level of snake oil this is.

For heavily tarnished brass, stuff that hasn't been polished in years, I use Lysol toilet bowl cleaner. Then Never-Dull

Like SpeedyT offered above, The Brite Boy polish from the local Janitorial supply store works very well and it's super easy to use. Wipe on and wipe off before it drys. No washing off with water like some require. It's just like a regular polish but removes the heavy tarnish much quicker and I get a Gallon for about $50. I hope that Noxon for $140. is for at least a gallon!!

You really have to wonder what method door hardware people like Baldwin use because after many years here at the beach those products still gleam like new!!!

In the Marines, for a few extra dollars, we could buy anodized brass buckles, brass tie clasp and brass uniform buttons. Like Baldwin door knobs, the brightwork was very brightly polished and never needed to be polished. I wonder how difficult and expensive it would be to get Model T brass work anodized and who does it.