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Copper Stove Hood needs help!

 

Help! I just purchased a home that has a copper hood above the range. I didn't know it was copper-- because most of it was brown. I've been using a metal polish on it-- and it is just beautiful-- but there is one side that looks like it has been varnished or lacquered somehow. Is there something I can use on the copper to strip off this coating so that I can polish it like the rest of the hood?

Keiko J [surname deleted for privacy by Editor]
- Glendale, California, USA

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Well, they tell you to use acetone ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] Warning! highly Flammable! to remove the varnish from copper pots, so perhaps you could use that. Just make sure you keep it away from open flame and heat, and that you wash it off completely when you have finished. Good luck.

neith hotep
- weho, California USA
2007

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Hi, Keiko. If it is lacquer, it should be easily removable with lacquer thinner ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] Warning! highly flammable! , as Neith mentioned. If it is a more robust permanent coating, you might only be able to remove it with Methylene Chloride-based Aircraft Stripper, and this stuff is too nasty to suggest using inside in a fixed location. If the hood can be removed and taken outside, and if you have proper protective gear against inhaling it or getting it on your skin, it's a possibility (though better to take it to a plating shop for stripping by people who are trained and equipped to work with these nasty chemicals). Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
October , 2008