Brass is something that many people love. However, because of the use of lacquer, a lot of brass you find in thrift stores and such may have a protective coating on them. This makes them shine brightly, but it will never look like true brass. Therefore, some people want to remove it from their brass. Removing lacquer from brass may sound very difficult, but it isn’t.

What You Need

If you are wanting to remove lacquer from brass, you will need a few things to help you through. These items include acetone, which you should be able to find near the paint aisle, a bowl that you do not mind tossing out afterward, brass polish of some sort, and an old rag that you no longer need. Most of these items may be things that you already have around your home. The biggest thing is, you need to make sure that the acetone you have is pure and not some kind of substitute.

Before You Begin

Some of the “brass” items that we find are not pure brass. If you dunk brass plated metals into acetone, you could damage them. To find out if you have true brass or not, you can use a magnet. The magnet will not stick if it is pure. If you discover that it is pure brass, you can then pour the acetone into a bowl and submerge the brass into it. Within only a minute or two, you should notice the lacquer bubbling up, but it could take longer for stubborn lacquer; perhaps as much at five minutes. When it bubbles, you can then rinse it off and you are done with that part of it.

Clean the Brass

After you have done that to all of the brass piece, you will want to apply your brass cleaner liberally. First though you must dry the brass piece. After it has set for about a minute, you will want to wipe off the brass cleaner. Rinse the piece in cool water and dry it. Your lacquer free brass will finally look like brass is supposed to look.