nj_dilettante wrote:
The plumbing and light fixtures in my main bathroom are polished brass -
quality varies from Moen to Sears to unknown. They've been in place about
15 years.

ALL of them show ugly brown spots under the seal coat, and I'd like to get
them back to shiny new. Any suggestions?

I have really, really, REALLY hard water - could this be a factor in the
pervasive discoloration?

Thanks -

Most brass fixtures these days are "laquered" brass, which means that
after polishing the fixture at the factory, they put clear coat over
top of it to keep the brass from tarnishing and keep it's nice shiny
finish. The problem with this is that the clear coat eventually gets
tiny cracks in it which lets in air/moisture which is what creates the
dark spots you see.

The only thing I know of to remove the dark spots is to completely
remove the clear coat finish (say with chemical stripper and/or steel
wool), and then polish the brass with some sort of metal polish. But
now your clear coat is gone, so the brass fixture will now start to
tarnish again immediately, but this time it will tarnish more
uniformly. And this only really works when it is a solid brass
fixture. Many inexpensive fixtures are brass plated plastic or pot
metal, with a very thin layer of brass. Removing the clear coat and
polishing can easily rub right through the thin plating.

I live in an older house with a lot of original brass fixtures. Some
of the fixtures have what appears to be some sort of clear finish on
them (like the door knobs on the insides of closets that get very
little use). Other fixtures are made out of brass but were factory
painted. Other fixtures have so many coats of homeowner-applied paint
I can't tell what the orginal finish was. For all of these fixtures
I've been stripping off all coatings and polishing, and then leaving
them to naturally tarnish over the years to come. Whenever we get some
new brass fixture, I always get the "unlaquered" finish, if it is
available. For some things where I have a new laquered finish, I'm
getting the brown spots. At some point when it annoys me enough, I'll
strip the laquered finish off of those things and just polish like
normal.

Ken