please explain tarnish

dear all

the 4-poster bed post about 7 1/2 feet long. i had cleaned it a long time ago with brasso, but i think i ruined it and striped off a layer of coating of i don't know what. today i cleaned it out and unscrewed the fittings. under the fittings is the untouched original. it doesn't look tarnished as compared to exposed parts. and on closer inspection, i could see that it is a sheet of brass or whatever wrapped around a metal rod.
so there are actually 3 different parts; the under the fittings (tarnish?), the unbrasso tarnish and the brasso-cleaned tarnish. so i decided to clean it at the border of the previously brassoed area. first i used brasso, but nothing happened. so i used autosol and that cleaned it up but i noticed that it had took off a bit of the "under fittings tarnish".

questions:
what have i done and what are the different layers?
is there any way to get it to look like the original again? original=under the fittings.
what to do from here on ... suggestions?

regards
phaik hooi

 

If solid brass, you should be able to polish it and the spot you did polish looks fine. It is just not as yellow as the other. It probably had a lacquer coating that kept it from tarnishing and that lacquer yellows over time. Also the first stages of tarnishing change the color to a more yellow tone. Tarnish is due to exposure to oxygen (oxidation). The lacquer keeps the oxygen out. The problem with lacquer is that it chips off and the piece will tarnish anywhere it does so, giving an uneven appearance.

To tell if your bed is solid brass, test with a magnet on the long tubes. It should not stick. Where the rails attach is iron so it will stick there.

 

thanx!! probably brass sheet. will go test with magnet.
the lacquer coating, would it be the same as lacquer for wood furniture or is there a special one for metals?

 

as i suspected, not solid brass. see last photo.

@verybrad can you tell me why did the brasso not work? was it because it was just too badly tarnished? autosol worked so well.

 

@Any Jewellery the head and foot ends

 

Oooh, love it. Is that mother of pearl?

 

yes
grandparents wedding bed

 

LOVE that! It's a beautiful bed. When a piece has wheels like that, it's often over 100 years old. Brass beds aren't in style in the US at the moment, but that one...wow. I hope it's staying in the family!

 

The Brasso would probably work with more elbow grease. I assume the autosol is stronger. Not a product I am familiar with. Actually, the fastest way to remove tarnish from brass is with hydrochloric acid. It also dulls the finish a bit so would need to be polished back up. Probably would only recommend it on solid brass. Could remove plating but polishing will as well. You would just have less control with acid.

 

i slept on it for 10+ years while working in sarawak. now i am home and there's no space for it, plus there are regular beds to sleep in

 

Phaik Hooi, I am just curious but . . . do you happen to know what the original mattress stuffing was?

 

real cotton stuffed in khaki. usually not more that 3-4" thick and locally made. no springs. when the mattress fell apart, my grandfather found out that it also had ball bearings in it! they always complained about how heavy it was and then they knew
the locals really love their cotton mattress, pillow and bolster. you can still get and we still use cotton filled pillow and bolster but cotton mattress are very rare now. unlike copra fibre mattress, which are still available.

 

Phaik Hooi, thank you for the mattress-stuffing information. That is interesting about the cotton stuffed in khaki.

I don't know what the mattresses at my grandma and grandpa's house were stuffed with, but I do know that all the sleeping pillows were stuffed with (chicken?) feathers. I remember having my face lightly scratched a couple of times by a feather quill working its way through a pillowcase.

 

if you can remember what it felt like, you could probably figure it out

 

I remember the scratches . . . but that is probably because Grandma put one of her "home remedies (salve of some sort)" on them.

 

straw?

 

I have done a number of antique brass items in the past The best way is to dismantle and strip off the lacquer using methylated spirits and a very fine green scourer, don't try and remove the tarnish with the green scourer, then get a buffing pad that attaches to a drill or bench grinder and apply a buffing compound to remove the tarnish. Once it's all highly polished leave it for a week until it oxidizes a little again and then use a spray lacquer that has Garnet finish or slightly lighter maybe lemon or a mixture of both to get the right color, you can buy spray can that has a lid that unscrews so you can fill the container, then you screw the lid back on and it has a pump devise just like a balloon pump under the spry nozzle that goes into the can to pressurize it. Just looked it up and you can use a product called "YOUCAN" that might be easier to find.

 

thanx!! i will be cleaning it with soapy water first because it is so dirty. then will decide what to do next. i am not familiar with this kind of cleaning, not even sure if there is a lacquer finish. but the parts i have cleaned before actually cleans easier, so it probably has a lacquer or just caked with dirt?

tq again, always nice to know what kind of options are available when undertaking such a big task so that one doesn't mess things up too badly