Quote Originally Posted by Baeau View Post
As for the drawer pulls, what abouth the old "How To Clean A Penny" trick. Drop them in a glass of Coca Cola for a while. Followed, eventually, with Brasso
I don't drink colas, typically, so all I had on hand was ginger ale. I tried soaking them in a bowl with that, but it didn't seem to do much. I don't know if it has to be a dark cola; I was under the impression that any carbonated soda would work. Ginger ale has citric acid in it, but alas, it actually seemed to make them darker.

But I did try some "copper cream" that my wife uses for cleaning up certain antiques, and it did a nice job. It takes some elbow grease with a toothbrush to get into all the nooks and crannies, but it sure brightens them up. I don't think they're copper, but they appear to be some sort of copper alloy (still thinking possibly bronze). Anyway, you can see below how one of them is looking much better.

And oh yeah, I found a brass lid (possibly from a sugar bowl) at an estate sale this morning for 25 cents that I think will work nicely as a centre boss. It's 4-1/2" diameter. I'll have to shave the lip off the bottom and find a way for one of the studs to cover up the notch as best I can, but I think this brass piece will be the center boss. I started polishing off the tarnish and it cleans up well.
And I'll still have to decide what to do for the rest of the targe front.