I received this statue of Buddha as a gift, more than twenty years ago. It’s a solid piece of brass, and as such, tends to tarnish and turn black over the course of a long period of time.
The last time I polished this statue was over ten years ago. It had started to turn black and I bought a small bottle of a product called Brasso. I followed the instructions to the letter, pouring a small amount of the product on a clean cloth and buffing the statue until the tarnish got cleaned off. Unfortunately, the statue has enough detail that a cloth couldn’t get into all the nooks and crannies. It left enough tarnish to bother me.
Ten years later, the statue tarnished enough that it was almost black. I wish I had taken a before photo… I contemplated how I would clean it, this time around. I went to a local store and found some Brasso, but it was almost ten dollars for a tiny bottle. I don’t use the stuff often enough to make it worth that price.
I found a homemade solution online that simply involved one part vinegar and one part water. Scrub the statue with a toothbrush or clean cloth then rinse under warm water and buff.
I filled a glass measuring cup with the mixture of vinegar and water and submerged the statue for about an hour. As I was doing other chores around the kitchen, I would occasionally check on the statue and noticed the tarnish progressively disappearing. A quick wipe down and a buff, and the statue is almost cleaner than the day I got it two decades ago. ☯
The Blogging Buddhist 