Best lacquer for brass?

Slightly off topic - the brass items in question are in fact the three pedals on my piano which have never been polished, and which for some (probably age-related) reason are irritating me.

I will machine polish the pedals, and am wondering if anyone can please recommend a suitable lacquer. For example, does brass tolerate clear polyurethane varnish?

Many thanks.

Christopher W.

Reply to
Christopher Wigdor
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Yes, Christopher, I polished & lacquered the brass trim and tinned plates on my replica of a pre-Viking age helmet some three years ago and it is still quite acceptably polished.

I used a tin of acrylic spray lacquer from my local motor factors.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
J K Siddorn

Many thanks, Kim, I shall go and find some acrylic lacquer.

Yours,

Christopher

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Reply to
Christopher Wigdor

Do you play the piano? If so after a while the lacquer will scratch and wear and to get a decent finish again you'll have to remove all the old stuff and start again. I'd just use Brasso or Duraglit, mask of the woodwork and felts through unless you fully remove the pedals for polishing.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

A trick I've used is, after cleaning with Brasso, polish it up with furniture polish. The shine will last a lot longer, and unlike lacquer, it comes off anyway when you rebrasso.

David Mack

Reply to
David Mack

I do play the piano - bought it new in 1977; it's a Yamaha. Although the pedals were not lacquered they took years to tarnish, which made me wonder if Yamaha used a special polish. I will remove the pedals for machine polishing and will lacquer them, because only a very small proportion of their surface area actually gets pressed.

Thanks for the thought - if lacquering doesn't work in the long term I shall certainly use a wax polish.

Christopher W.

Reply to
Christopher Wigdor

I would take them to an automotive painter and have them spray the pedals with a two part clear overbase. This stuff is much harder and will take the abuse of playing for much longer than plain spray on clear lacquer.

If you have any friends in the marine industry, US Paints the makers of Awlgrip recommend the use of their two part clear lacquers for this very purpose. The only problem is that it is much more expensive and there are not as many people or companies that use it.

Regards,

Chris Kessell

Reply to
Chris

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