Beginners Guide on How to Polish Brass to a Mirror Finish

Welcome to my channel, Matt's Metalworking. Please don't forget to hit that LIKE button and SUBSCRIBE for future videos. My name is Matt and I produce metalworking relating videos which can include fabrication, machining, milling, turning, welding, tool tutorials, etc.

In this video I will be showing you a beginner’s guide on how to polish brass with a mirror finish by hand. I’m just using a piece of raw brass, so you can see it’s quite rough and it’ll definitely be more work intensive than compared to a machined piece or something that is already finished just needing to be refinished.

Amazon links for various products used in the video for both USA and Canada:
USA
Canada

Wash the piece to remove any contaminants which may cause damage during the contamination process.

Depending on the surface, this will depend on what grit of sandpaper is required. I am starting with 600 grit sandpaper, this needs to be a wet/dry compatible paper. The sandpaper needs to be pre-soaked. I have a bucket of water beside me, if you wish you can mix in soap to help with lubrication.

For heavier surface damage, a lower the grit is required. However when you go to a lower grit, this also means more material will be removed, and as you increase to a higher grit, slightly more work is required to remove those heavier grit scratches. When starting out with that first grit of sandpaper, most of those surface imperfections should be removed. Rinse off the surface to remove any access sanding material and always keep the sand paper well lubricated.

Moving up to 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. The reason I am wet sanding is so that the dust is kept down and we can achieve a finer finish. The black backing pad I have keeps even pressure on the surface with minimal distortion as what you may find when only using your fingers.

After a couple minutes of sanding, you’ll noticed the sanding marks are much finer and we can now move onto 1500 grit. Rinse excessive material build up and make sure the sandpaper is well lubricated. Compared to other metals I have polished in the past, I do find brass tends to be a little sticky when moving up to finer grits.

Now 2000 grit sandpaper. After this you can take it to another step using 3000 grit, but for this I am finishing with 2000 grit. The finer grits allows you to achieve a higher shine with more clarity.

For an addition example using an abrasive pad. Just like sandpaper, these too are available in various grits and is typically distinguishable by the color of pad. The maroon pad is listed at about 320 to 400 grit. These can be used with water as well which I am doing here. These pads are great for irregular shaped objects, but they don’t necessarily remove surface imperfections. Instead they smoothen or round off those imperfections. Sandpaper with a backer on the other hand can promote more of a smooth surface.

Moving up to a finer grit, this pad is green and rated at about 600 grit. Always keep the area well lubricated and rinse away excessive material. I’ll be stopping here to demonstrate what happens when you don’t use a fine enough grit before moving onto a polishing compound.

Now moving onto the polishing stage. You can use a polishing compound such as what is used on automative paint or a metal or alloy specific polish. Here I am using an aluminum wheel polish. Work the polish into the surface, apply more polish when needed, and wipe away if the old polish gets too excessive. The polish will turn black which is perfectly normal as it’s removing a very light amount of material.

Once the surface is almost finished, finish up with a light amount of polish and a soft cloth.

This concludes the rest of my video, be sure to hit that thumbs up button, it’s a huge help to me and leave a comment below if you found this tutorial helpful or would like to share your brass polishing tips. And if you’re not a subscriber, be sure to hit that subscribe button. Thank you for watching.

[MattsMetalworking]

Amazon links for various products used in the video for both USA and Canada:
USA
Canada

[sophiedefaoite]

Just came here as my mother has asked me to polish her fireplace which is brass. This is awesome!!! Thanks so much :)

[Anonymous-itjw]

Great tutorial! If you haven't already done so, consider making a tutorial on using Dremel tools, orbital polishers and other power tools for larger areas, and/or for detail work on more intricate pieces.

[wolf]

You sound like an airplane pilot giving directions before the takeoff dont take offense to it it's pretty cool that's all I'm saying they probably hire you to pre-record all the directions

[kevinobrien]

a really nice clear and easy to follow guide for newbies.

[edfurlong]

Very helpful and clear demo of brass polishing. Helpful to me for a small woodworking project that has brass fittings. Thanks!

[jlh]

Hey Matt - thank you for taking the time and effort to product this excellent, easy to understand and follow, video tutorial on the proper way to bring brass to a polish finish.

[AMB]

Great video. Detailed yet short and to the point. Great speech and explanation, too.

[jlycurgus]

Fantastic! This is exactly what I was looking for thank you! Great use of the tags for this video! This is literally the first video I saw and clicked, it's also all the information I was curious to know!

[행운의너굴맨]

im studying metal art and design and this video is super helpful!!!
thank you for the video its helping a frustrated student😂😂

[barbaracummings]

This was very helpful to me, as I am a beginner yo this craft. Thank you.

[watertails]

Brilliant video, thank you very much! Great delivery and concise detail 👌

[joeespinosa]

Awesome I can't believe the results I'm getting on a piece of furniture doing this process I'd like to try on my cymbals

[robkone]

Very well done. Explained very simply. Thanks

[operator]

That was super helpful and well illustrated, thank you!

[letgo]

Please show us how to make Tools particularly the "Special tools" used in many automobiles .It will be a great HELP . Hope you see this. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ From Kerala, India.

[nilamadsen]

very helpful! thanks for the video...the voice control was perfectfor tutorials....not distracting..and easy to pick up on all the directions....i am debating on cleaning up the patina saltwater adn grime on the brass on the LOT of work i see..but...since we sanding the bright work...we nipped intot he brass and small snippets of it are now shiny..making it all need to look shiny...

[fordfan]

Perfect, shared it with a buddy building a musket.

[marcn]

Hi Matt,

Useful. Clear. Thank you so much.

I work with watch cases. Often in steel.

I tend to use diamond paste for a high polish.

Best wishes from Singapore

[incawarrior]

Really excellent video and information on polishing metal, this helps a lot!
Thank you -