Maintaining polished brass inlays on guitar body

[Philip Donovan]

Hello,

First, thank you all for your guidance during polishing of brass pieces and plates on a fretless guitar that I built.

I'm hoping to find out if there is a kind of jewelers cloth, or cloth set that would work to maintain the polish on the brass as well as keep corrosion from forming.

The polishing process consisted of the 9 grits of Micromesh pads followed by the Micromesh 1 micron aluminum dust suspended in some kind of cream.
Despite a few very faint scratches (only seen up close) the result was remarkable. Everyone goes "OOOhhhhhh" when they see it! .

I suppose I could periodically carefully wipe down the brass with the 1 micron Micromesh cream but, it sure would be alot more efficient and cleaner if there were cloths available that would address this, keep corrosion from forming and maintain the approximate level of sheen and polish that I was able to achieve.

Thank you all !
Best,
Phil Donovan

[Philip Donovan]

Just searching around now, it seems as though once you get to the 1 micron (14,000 grit) level of things, you don't see much or any actual cloths that you can just pull out of a bag and start wiping. I guess that shouldn't surprise. There are however, thin sanding sheets that come in 12" x 8" and people will cut that into the sizes that suit them for the job. They claim the sheets are flexible enough to polish tight rounded corners and radius's.

That might do it. Not as quick n easy as a good ol' cloth but, not as messy and time consuming as having to use a cream or rough and apply to something. There is wood surrounding the brass (finished with around 20 apps of Tru Oil) so, not having to mess with the wood surroundings is attractive.

Phil D

[Barry Daniels]

The best way long term way to protect polished brass is to put a clear coat on it. That is what I did on a Trombone for many years. With continued use the coating will wear off after several years then you can go through the finishing process again.

Recommending a clear coat for yours I would say another coat or two of Tru-Oil over the whole thing would keep things compatible.

[Alan Carruth]

I doubt Tru-oil would keep brass from tarnishing. Lacquer or shellac might do it, but it won't be as shiny as bare polished brass.

[Philip Donovan]

Thank you for chiming in on this.

I certainly have considered a clear coat over the brass, and I do have a Woodcraft 10 minutes away that carries Behlens Brass lacquer. Its been tempting but yeah, the look of well polished brass is something to behold, and I would be happy to leave it as such as long as there was a moderately reasonable way to keep it maintained by treating it every so often before enough patina began to form that might justify a total multi-grit polishing schedule. I just had to wonder if I were to hit the surfaces with a fine polish, on the lines of 1 micron as was the final application of my brass, it would both keep the patina away, and also maintain the final sheen that I had achieved. Perhaps I should just simply rub out the surfaces with little pieces of the 100% cotton flannel with the 1 micron cream, and wipe it off real good. Do that every few months or so before corrosion gets too much.

It would just be nice to have a cloth that would do the same thing. I don't mind doing a little polishing.

Thank you!

Phil

[Peter Wilcox]

Maybe I'm not understanding your exact need, but I googled "polishing cloth" and this came up:

https://www.amazon.com/Cape-Metal-Polis ... B00Y7KYEQA

[Philip Donovan]

Thank you Peter.

Quick version: I polished the brass control plate, pickup ring and decorative appointments to a 1 micron grit, and it would be great to have a 1 micron jewelers cloth for rubbing out the surfaces of the brass every month or so to keep corrosion from forming and to also maintain the level of luster that was achieved. The link you sent was seeming like the kind of thing that would be perfect but I didn't see any specs about the grit finess. it seems like things stop short at about 2 microns with the impregnated cloths. 2 microns isn't bad, its the final grit on the Micromesh pads but the 1 micron cream just brought out a level of luster that the pads did not. It would be great to have a quick a simple way of just running over the brass without getting into applicators, creams, rouge, etc., since 5 of the pieces are glued into the body. They aren't inlayed like mother of pearl on a fretboard, the edges have radius's and there is some space between the brass and the wood. Plus, I figured going with a cloth would help keeping solution away from the wood and TRu OIl finish.
I havent given up yet though.

Thank you all very much!

Best,

Phil

[Philip Donovan]

I came across this and will likely try it. They come as polyester backed sheets that are flexible. $3.99 per sheet. They come as fine as .3 micron (60,000 grit).

I'm fairly convinced at this point that the cloths stop at 2 microns. Maybe its just not feasible to manufacture a cloth at this finess. Thats Ok. They say you can use these sheets with your own backing pads to meet the requirements of the job you are doing.

I'm going to pick up some of these and try it out on a smaller piece first, see how it goes.
Thank you all for hanging in with me on this, it was really long grueling work to get the brass to the state I did, and it sure would be nice to keep it that way this time around!

Best,
Phil D.

[Clay Schaeffer]

They make polishing cloths for woodwind instruments that might work:
https://www.westmusic.com/band-orchestr ... ish-cloths