Last month in this column, we restored an abandoned wood desk to its original glory with some sandpaper, a couple of stain pens and a putty knife. It looked great and was a lot of fun to do, so this month I thought we might try refurbishing the various metals you’ll find around your home. When I searched eBay for a “rusty tool” to use as a model, the lowest-priced item turned out to be a bunion reliever from 1891, and the matter was settled. (Alas, it’s not as gross as it sounds, though it is a conversation starter.)
I’ve been fascinated by metal since I was a kid. My mother would let me use Brasso to polish pennies and, for holidays, her silver place settings; there’s something magical about making a dull thing gleam in your hands. These days I appreciate metal’s resilience and utility more than its beauty, and I love turning a yard-sale find into a useful tool.
Today, let’s work on restoring four common metals: steel, brass, silver and aluminum. We’ll get the rust off the steel bunion reliever and make a pair of neglected C-clamps usable again. We’ll strip multiple layers of paint off door hinges without damaging their brass plating. A badly tarnished silver-plated sugar bowl (eBay again; 1889) will get a gentle polish. And my 25-year-old aluminum moka pot will get a new brushed finish.
Most of these techniques can be used on a variety of metals, and I hope they’ll help you revitalize all manner of objects. (The exception is silver, solid or plated, which really does require a delicate hand and a very mild polish.) The methods I chose are low-cost, require no special equipment or experience, and are safer than many alternatives.
The Tools
I reach for the tools here again and again, whether I’m restoring a curb rescue or working on my home renovation, because they excel at their jobs and make my jobs easier.
-
An ultrafine gray Scotch-Brite pad (model 7448) is superficially similar to the green Scotch-Brite you find at the grocery store, but the abrasive is harder, finer and more uniform. It doesn’t clog up like sandpaper, doesn’t rust like steel wool, lasts almost forever, and puts a velvety finish on metal and wood. Small pieces are more adept at detail work, so cut the 6-by-9-inch sheets into pieces no bigger than a business card.
-
Caustic rust removers are nasty to work with and to clean up. Evapo-Rust is skin-safe and reusable. Plus, it only attacks rust. Unlike acid-based removers, it doesn’t damage the steel underneath, or any other metals except magnesium.
-
Multitalented WD-40 needs no introduction. Just don’t use it like a lubricant — it dries over time and gums up moving parts. Renaissance Wax, which protects metals from oxidation, was invented for the British Museum, where it’s used to protect medieval armor against the damp.
-
It’s worth keeping a tube of high-quality metal polish on hand. I use Wenol Auto and Motorcycle polish; Simichrome is excellent, too.
-
Krud Kutter is a fantastic all-purpose cleaner and degreaser with a mild scent. It’s also an excellent stripper of latex paint. I buy the concentrate in gallon jugs and mix it 1:10 with water in spray bottles.
-
A heat gun quickly softens paint, making it easy to scrape off, and won’t kick up paint dust like sanding does. (I used my Wagner Furno 500, which costs about $50.)
-
The ideal paint scraper is flexible and no thicker than a credit card; the narrower the blade, the better it gets into crannies. Smooth the cutting edge with fine sandpaper or Scotch-Brite before using, because any nicks or burs on the edge will leave scratches.
OK, let’s rescue some metal.
Rusty Steel
The 19th-century bunion reliever (don’t worry, it just stretches shoes for comfort) had a thin, even coating of rust on it, typical of an old steel tool that’s mostly been kept indoors. If you own secondhand tools or decorative iron objects in a similar state, they’ll be easy to revive.
Wet a gray Scotch-Brite pad with WD-40 and scrub the rust off. (The bunion tool took less than 10 minutes.) Wipe the object clean and apply a thin layer of fresh WD-40 or, for more durable protection, Renaissance Wax. (It’s pricey, but a little goes a long way. I bought my 200-millilter canister over a decade ago and it probably has another decade left.)
For more heavily rusted items, like the pair of corroded C-clamps in the photo, start with a bath of Evapo-Rust. Warming the Evapo-Rust will speed up the process; I stuck my jug of it in a pot of hot tap water for an hour.
After a two-hour bath and a quick scrub with Scotch-Brite, the smaller C-clamp was rust-free. Its screw, which had been completely locked up by heavy rust inside the frame, came loose after a little persuasion, giving me a usable, and very useful, tool. The big clamp needed another day of soaking, but it too is back in business.
Painted Brass
These hinges are brass-plated steel, not solid brass — I used a magnet to check — which meant I had to take care not to scratch the finish; using any abrasive was out of the question. They’re also heavy duty, with internal ball bearings supporting the hinge pins, so I couldn’t just soak the paint off with a solvent because it would dissolve the bearing grease.
That left Krud Kutter and the heat gun.
When applying a heat gun to paint, use a low or moderate heat setting and place the object on something scorch-proof. An overturned cookie sheet is excellent, because it creates a sturdy, flat work surface that’s elevated above whatever is underneath.
The goal is to soften the paint, not burn it off, so proceed slowly until you find the right combination of temperature setting, distance from the object, and amount (time) of heat applied. Make sure the area is well ventilated, and if there’s a chance the paint contains lead (the odds increase if the object was painted before 1978), strongly consider leaving it alone or encasing it in a nicer, neater layer of fresh paint.
Silver Plate
A stamp on the bottom of this 1889 sugar bowl boasts of its triple-plated silver finish, but at least two and a half of those layers had been lost to time. I used Wenol Auto and Motorcycle metal polish, which is extremely gentle, in order to leave as much of the remaining silver intact as possible.
Don’t use the popular hack of cleaning silver plate in an aluminum pan filled with boiling water and baking soda. It leaves an unnaturally perfect finish, and can easily remove too much of the plating.
A soft cloth and a soft touch are the keys here; don’t try to rush the process by bearing down. And don’t aim for perfection. Leave tarnish in the recessed spots, and bring the flat surfaces to a sheen, not a mirror finish. (Someone had over-polished the lid before I bought the bowl, and it looks like an ill-fitting hat.)
Take the same approach when using polish on old brass furniture handles, and really any antique metal object.
Aluminum
I use a moka pot almost every morning. This one, my first, was already old when I got it, and 25 years later it was long overdue for a refresh.
I like a brushed, or grained, finish on aluminum. The trick to creating one is simply to use parallel strokes with a fine abrasive.
Scotch-Brite is especially effective for this because it resists clogging. You have two options here: Using it dry, which gives the most dramatic effect because the naked abrasive creates sharply defined scratches. Or wet sanding (like I did here), which reduces the abrasiveness and creates a subtler grain pattern. It’s less messy, too. Water helps wash away the aluminum shavings, which otherwise turn into a tenacious gray powder.
You can use the same technique on solid brass, copper, plain and stainless steel, and even hard plastic. In addition to giving objects a modern look, the light-scattering effect of brushed finishes helps disguise minor scratches and dents — which is why stainless appliances almost always get a brushing at the factory.
And that’s it: four techniques that will return nearly any metal object to glory. Next month we’ll get back to a single-purpose project — though I am tempted to keep going with the elemental theme. Maybe we can find something to do with earth.
The post Time to Shine: Let’s Restore All Your Rusty Metal. appeared first on New York Times.
