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Question
What do you use to polish the portlights - I believe they are bronze? Would you use something similar to Brasso or Barkeepers Friend to rid the interior of the GREENIES?
I don't mind the GREENIES outside, but like the polished look in the cabin! So anyone know of any great polishes to use on BRONZE?
Daryl
REPLY #1
In fresh water the bronze won't turn green unless you want it to. You can pickle it green with vinegar- don't wash off the vinegar- or you can polish it bright with "Lots of Mustard." Sorry, couldn't resist that!
Jock , s/v BABY GRAND
REPLY #2
Well, I'm going to drop an oar into the water and stir things up a bit. I used all the preparations on the market and they are all hard, to impossible, to work with. Then I read an article in an old cruising book. They used ordinary ketchup. That's right ketchup, the stuff you put on hamburgers! All you do is apply a thick coat and wait about 20 minutes, then wipe off. If your bronze is a bad as mine is with the green, you may have to apply a second or even a third coat. But there is NO work involved. Now, this won't give you a shine, but you do get bright metal. You have to use Brasso or another polish for the shine but to get the green off, ketchup works great. It seems that the acid in tomatoes is what does it, so I guess you could use tomato paste also, I haven't tried that yet. Good luck on cleaning up your bronze. By the way most bronze alloys are made of various percentages of Copper and Tin.... this is why bronze is used around salt water, not brass. Brass is Copper and zinc. Tin is a more noble metal on the electrochemical scale than zinc.
REPLY #3
Tonight I want to talk about something that has been a maritime tradition for centuries. I'm talking about, of course, polishing brass & bronze. From the bronze bell on the aft deck of a full rigged ship to the brass coat hanger on a modern cruise liner, the tradition has been "the brass must shine!" I'm glad to say it is time to abolish this time honored tradition.
I once saw a bumper sticker that said "Life Is Too Short To Own A Wooden Boat". I may have another bumper sticker made up with "Life Is Too Short To Polish Brass". Now, I know what you're thinking! What an unromantic clod! Please read on....
There was no one more proud than me when I installed the six solid bronze ports on our Flicka. They glittered like gold. Every piece on our boat that could be easily fabricated or purchased for our boat is bronze. Stainless has it's uses and requires no real polishing but lacks any personality or depth of beauty. Our chainplates, whisker stay tangs, cranze iron, staysail tang, genny cars and even the tiny star on the end of the bowsprit are made of glorious bronze!
A technical note here: most bronze on boats is an alloy of tin with either copper and manganese or copper and silicon added. The copper/manganese alloy when exposed to seawater turns brownish like a copper penny. The alloy of copper/silicon when exposed to seawater turns green. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Zinc! What the hell were they thinking? Do you know what zinc does when it's exposed to seawater? Look at one of your prop zincs and you'll get your answer. Back to my ranting.....
(NOTE: Brass should never be used as a structural engineering material on a boat. In a saltwater environment, a galvanic couple occurs between the copper and zinc within the brass. Because the zinc becomes the anode, the zinc is converted to ionic zinc and dissolves into the surrounding seawater. Galvanic corrosion also occurs between aluminum and either bronze or brass when they are in close proximity, are in a saltwater environment and are connected to each other via an electrical conducting material. - the WebCaptain)
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