Melodeon.net Forums

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome to the new melodeon.net forum

Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit  (Read 10161 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Rog

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2295
  • Repair and tuning in Hants
You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« on: June 07, 2017, 02:49:11 PM »

I have a tub of Brasso wadding and also a tub of Duraglit. The Duraglit is v old, though the wadding is fine but dried out. I have been trying to find out if there is much difference. Duraglit seems to have gone out of production, or been bought by Brasso. My old Pa used to say that too much cleaning with Brasso will eventually strip plating, but the advice found on the inter web suggests Brasso is ok for plating. Not sure though about Duraglit. We always had a tin of Duraglit at home for general cleaning. Anyome have a deep knowledge on this subject and care to share? FYI and as mentioned on other threads, Brasso is good for getting a shine on celluloid.

911377brian

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1518
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2017, 03:02:35 PM »

Never saw any evidence of Brasso stripping plating on any of the ships I served on, and the RN used gallons of the stuff.
Logged

Theo

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 13727
  • Hohner Club Too
    • The Box Place
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2017, 03:29:40 PM »

Brasso is does contain a very fine abrasive, and it does remove a very small amount of metal from the surface.  That is how it works, and most or all metal polishes are similar.  They also contain detergents to remove adhering contamination.  Will it significantly wear away plating?   Possibly but it depends on the plating as well as the polish.   Chrome plating is very hard and unlikely to be damaged, nickel is a little softer.  The most prone to damage would be silver because it is a soft metal.   There are polishes designed for silver and silver plate which also have a chemical action to deal with tarnish and I've always understood that any abrasive in silver polish is less aggressive than in brass polish.

Silvo wadding is still available for polishing silver.

Logged
Theo Gibb - Gateshead UK

Proprietor of The Box Place for melodeon and concertina sales and service.
Follow me on Twitter and Facebook for stock updates.

boxer

  • Respected Sage
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 380
  • B/C Pokerwork - ultimate ceili box
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2017, 04:25:31 PM »

the best metal polish I've used is Cape Cod.  It comes in the form of a biggish can of pink impregnated wadding sheets, and it is in my experience the best and quickest remedy for nickel plate that's got fingerprint blooms - something other polishes usually can't shift.

There are two downsides:

1. Price - the last tin I bought (a few years ago at Lakeland Plastics) cost about £20. 

2.  The smell - for some reason best known to Yankees the wadding sheets are also heavily impregnated with vanilla, which quickly soaks into your fingers making them smell for ages.  Best remedy is to wear disposable latex gloves - there's a pair in every can.

It's fairly aggressive so you don't need to press on hard to get a result.
Logged
Nuage, Tommy, Cairdin, 
Double Ray DLX 21x12, Black Dot,
Pre-Erica, Pokerwork
plus various stringed things

Broadland Boy

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1243
  • Awful noises from Pokerwork, HA114G, BbEb Liliputs
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2017, 12:44:32 AM »

You can rejuvenate the dried out wadding with a little paraffin Roger, both Duraglit and Brasso used something else as well, nobody seems to know what. I'd not noticed the absence of Duraglit, shame as it was always the more effective of the two on badly tarnished brass.

Liquid Brasso has long been used as an agent to take the highspots off turned and bored components which need to slide smoothly together and the abrasive in it is most probably powdered pumice as it does not embed and cause ongoing wear. It is abrasive enough when used over many decades and does take the detail out of things such as engraved plates (look at your old bank or solicitors door plates in the older areas of town) I'd not use it regularly on nickel or silver plate and even Chrome might be susceptible despite its hardness. Theo mentioned the chemical effect on silver, one easy method uses Aluminium foil, baking soda and hot water, the benefit is it converts the silver oxide back to silver rather than just wears it away. Citric acid solution is great for brass or copper when badly tarnished - I've yet to find a chemical cleaner for Pewter though.

Liquid Brasso was responsible for some catastrophic failures of big textile mill engines of the North, repeated applications to shine up the nice brass or bronze cased hydraulic releif valves on the cylinders wiped a small amount inside each time, which dried and eventually filled and gummed up the springs & valve, come the day when they needed to operate, many tons of cast iron went BANG - the attached in addition to smashing the head and piston, broke the cylinder horizontally so that when they dismantled the cylinder, the top half lifted off 'like taking the top off a boiled egg'

I suspect that in such places the idea for the wadding product was derived, cotton waste (like raw cotton wool) was used for wiping oil up and soaked in Brasso for polishing, someone saw the 'sell less for more' potential  ;D
Logged
Richard A
Venit ventus contrarius ventus egrediente,
Omnes prope quid ventum est circa

Nick Collis Bird

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3785
  • Been squeezing melodeons for over 48 years (badly)
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #5 on: June 08, 2017, 08:53:48 AM »

Never saw any evidence of Brasso stripping plating on any of the ships I served on, and the RN used gallons of the stuff.

However Brian, very little of RN stuff is plated. Most of it is solid brass as I recall.
Logged
Has anyone heard of the song. “ Broken Alarm-clock Blues” ? It starts   “I woke up this Afternoon”

ACE

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 527
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2017, 09:05:39 AM »

Never saw any evidence of Brasso stripping plating on any of the ships I served on, and the RN used gallons of the stuff.

However Brian, very little of RN stuff is plated. Most of it is solid brass as I recall.

I think he might have drank too much of it. Metal? it was all wood when he was in the Andrew.
Logged
Saltarelle Horizon, Dino mini, Lachenal g/d anglo

Nick Collis Bird

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3785
  • Been squeezing melodeons for over 48 years (badly)
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #7 on: June 08, 2017, 09:08:06 AM »

 ;D ;D
Logged
Has anyone heard of the song. “ Broken Alarm-clock Blues” ? It starts   “I woke up this Afternoon”

Rob2Hook

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2278
  • Castagnaris, Hohners & Baffetti
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2017, 09:20:47 AM »

- I've yet to find a chemical cleaner for Pewter though.

I've been carrying out some long-term tests using beer as a cleaning agent. Can't get a volunteer for the control, though.

Rob.
Logged

Nick Collis Bird

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3785
  • Been squeezing melodeons for over 48 years (badly)
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #9 on: June 08, 2017, 09:24:25 AM »

I think wood ash works well on pewter.
Logged
Has anyone heard of the song. “ Broken Alarm-clock Blues” ? It starts   “I woke up this Afternoon”

Theo

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 13727
  • Hohner Club Too
    • The Box Place
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #10 on: June 08, 2017, 09:26:28 AM »

You need to make it randomised control test.  Then neither you nor the volunteer will know whether they will be offered a tankard of beer, a tankard if water, or a tankard of Brasso.
Logged
Theo Gibb - Gateshead UK

Proprietor of The Box Place for melodeon and concertina sales and service.
Follow me on Twitter and Facebook for stock updates.

malcolmbebb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2609
  • In dampest Dorset, on the soggy south coast.
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2017, 09:47:51 AM »

Yes, I've met a few beers like that too.
Logged
Dino BPII.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."

Jack Campin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 764
    • Jack Campin's Home Page
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #12 on: June 08, 2017, 10:45:01 AM »

How do "long lasting anti-tarnish" polishes work?

I've tried them to clean a bare brass saxophone and they don't seem to make much difference over the regular Brasso/Duraglit.
Logged
http://www.campin.me.uk/

I can't figure out how to quit but I will no longer check this group and have deleted all shortcuts to it.

911377brian

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1518
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #13 on: June 08, 2017, 11:11:00 AM »

Good point Nick and Ace,I did get drafted to a wooden minesweeper ( Micky Mouse) out of Chatham... very grubby little thing, not much brass..
Logged

Broadland Boy

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1243
  • Awful noises from Pokerwork, HA114G, BbEb Liliputs
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #14 on: June 08, 2017, 12:23:17 PM »

Roger, maybe not entirely dead after all http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Duraglit-Wadding-Metal-Chrome-Brass-Copper-Cleaning-Steel-Polish-75g-BRASSO-/172268551973?var=&hash=item281c017f25:m:mdowM2gtk1WDKrdlpAC5JUQ  though if the same recipe who knows, also a gold and silver variety available.

Jack, lots of showground engine owners cling film brasswork over winter to reduce tarnishing as the patent anti tarnish polishes just don't seem to last. There are microcrystaline waxes available which work well (museums tend to use these where a laquer would spoil the appearance), expensive, but a little goes a long way and polishes to a non sticky surface, these seem more effective on non ferrous than the 'old reliable' iron & steel protective lanolin based waxes and while I try to rub over yearly to maintain the surfaces, having skipped a year or two sometimes, have not noticed much, if any, deterioration unless the item has been heated by being steamed. What handling the sax would do to wear the surface away you'd have to experiment with - would it have been laquered originally ?

Theo, like the idea but a round of beers is bad enough these days without shelling out on pints of Brasso  :o

Thanks Nick, still abrasive but very mild - pints of mild & Brasso would keep a tankard interior sparkling.

Brian, did Napoleon plant many wooden mines ??

I know, I'll get me coat..........

« Last Edit: June 08, 2017, 12:28:17 PM by Broadland Boy »
Logged
Richard A
Venit ventus contrarius ventus egrediente,
Omnes prope quid ventum est circa

Nick Collis Bird

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3785
  • Been squeezing melodeons for over 48 years (badly)
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #15 on: June 08, 2017, 12:43:30 PM »

You must weigh up to seven tons now Richard what with all that coat getting.  >:E
Logged
Has anyone heard of the song. “ Broken Alarm-clock Blues” ? It starts   “I woke up this Afternoon”

baz parkes

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1875
    • All Blacked Up
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #16 on: June 08, 2017, 01:41:18 PM »

But Brasso is only three 'apence a tin

Were they still to be in existence you could buy it or swipe it from Woolworths, of course...
Logged
On the edge of Cheshire's Golden Triangle, apparently...

malcolmbebb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2609
  • In dampest Dorset, on the soggy south coast.
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #17 on: June 08, 2017, 02:01:59 PM »

Although generally considered unlikely that stocks would be available for purchase...



When I googled Duraglit, an number of results seemed to indicate that it had been bought out by the Brasso brand. Or vice versa.
I cleaned a metal tankard with it once and it took ages to gt rid of the taste and smell.
Logged
Dino BPII.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."

911377brian

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1518
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #18 on: June 08, 2017, 02:32:45 PM »

Anyone remember Bluebell? Apart from the name, identical to brasso...
Logged

TomB

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 514
  • BCC#, Cairden BC Mini and lots of PA's
Re: You say Brasso, I say Duraglit
« Reply #19 on: June 08, 2017, 02:33:49 PM »

In t'old days when I played brass instruments, I quickly found that the instruments tarnished very quickly when cleaned with Brasso but stayed bright far longer when using Duraglit. Maybe the recipes have changed in the intervening years. Of course, the best polish on the market ( as every apprentice knows ), is a tin of Elbow Grease.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up
 


Melodeon.net - (c) Theo Gibb; Clive Williams 2010. The access and use of this website and forum featuring these terms and conditions constitutes your acceptance of these terms and conditions.
SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal