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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Church Incense Burners. How can I clean one?
Q. As 'Church Brass Cleaner' for our village church, I have been given the job of polishing a swinging incense burner, that has burnt-on incense tar trickling down outside, on the brass plated surface!
I know I must not use brass polish, (not that I think that would work anyway!) so I have tried very hot water, which has cleaned items, made from a similar material, quite well, in the past.
The tar still stubbornly refuses to shift, even a little!
I could try vinegar
⇦in bulk on
eBay
or
Amazon [affil links] , tomato sauce, white spirit, or petrol, but I do not want to risk damaging what little surface is still visible between the tar trickles!
Has anyone any useful suggestions? Preferably someone who has actually tried it!
Brass polisher for local church - Chelmsford, Essex, UK
June 19, 2008
A. I think that you will need a nasty organic solvent called "carbon disulfide". It is the best solvent for tars that I have seen. It does require very careful use. Read a material safety data sheet (MSDS) before purchase to make sure that you want to use it. It should not turn the brass black, but if it does, quit using it and remove the black with a good brass polish.
As an alternative, go to the auto wax portion of a big store and look for a road tar remover. It may or may not work, but is easy to get and a bit safer to use and should not harm the brass.
- Navarre, Florida
June 20, 2008
June 20, 2008
Thank you so much for your response. Since posting my query, my husband took over the job! He had a reasonable success using Meths!
Also, we discovered that it WAS real brass, after all, but lacquered.
Naturally, after the meths, there was little lacquer left! But it will just have to be cleaned more often! (It looked as though I was the first person to ever try such a thing!) Your information will be most useful however, not only are there many other items I am responsible for cleaning (several tar-stained) But as we spend many weeks of the year on a narrowboat, we often have to remove tar from the roof of that! It trickles out of the chimney, and stains the roof horribly! Yours gratefully MA
- Chelmsford, Essex, UK
A. If you use a small rice cooker filled with water and heat it up place the tared object into the hot water for a few minutes and the tar will soften up to the point where you can use a small knife or chisel to easily scrap the tar off. This way you avoid using any strong or harmful chemicals.
Wilbert Gonzales- Santa Fe, new mexico usa
April 11, 2019
Q. I have many brass lamps for which I use kerosene as the fuel -- the glass chimneys have all broken - how can I find unbreakable chimneys? And I also need to get the green stuff off the brass; please help.
Julie Jolly- - Tamil Nadu - S. India
January 23, 2018
A. Try 5% ammonium citrate solution (pH 9). Lemon and salt mixture can be used too, but ammonium citrate is the best solution. Hope it helps and good luck!
Goran Budija- Zagreb,Croatia
January 24, 2018
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