An Old Navy Tradition

In this episode we're polishing brass.

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The views and opinions expressed in this video are those of the content creator only and may not reflect the views and opinions of the Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial, the Home Port Alliance for the USS New Jersey, Inc., its staff, crew, or others. The research presented herein represents the most up-to-date scholarship available to us at the time of filming, but our understanding of the past is constantly evolving. This video is made for entertainment purposes only.

[stevepotthast]

One advantage to being a submariner on a missile boat was that we were submerged for the entire 70 day patrol and couldn't carry Brasso on board since it was an atmosphere contaminant. A lot of the fittings and junction box covers were chromed if not painted.

[jastrapper]

It’s also a Marine experience. Starting in boot camp… they familiarize you with “brasso”. And when I was on the LSD Pearl Harbor as an E-2… heading to Iraq in 2003… they set me to “cranking” straight away. Helping the Navy guys maintain their spaces. First the scullery and then the Trash Room. We shined brightwork in the trash room until the Virgin Mary herself would be proud to go into that space and make a plastic pizza.

[ROBERTNABORNEY]

I had a friend as an Army officer who had been billeted as a Plebe at the Military Academy in an old barracks. So old, that it had been the home to General MacArthur as a cadet. There was a plaque on the door proclaiming it to be so. "My roommate and I felt honored" he said. "Until we realized we had an extra thing to polish"

[beanssomers]

Polishing brass in a space was a good way to make sure everyone was familiar with every square inch of their area. Which gets important every so often...

I used to wait till late while in port and sneek up to the pilot house and remove those junction panel lids like you're working on. I would have the paint stripped and get them polished like a piece of jewelry and reinstalled before morning. There was nothing better than hearing the quarter masters realize there was some new piece of brass to polish which they suddenly had responsibilty for.

Ask a Marine who part of a Marine Detachment on a carrier or battleship. We did a lot of polishing and buffing. You become an expert in operating the buffer! Semper Fidelis.

[Stude]

Recruit Training Command, San Diego. Sitting around before we were broken up into companies. The Chief comes out of the office and asks, “Who can drive a truck?” Of course a dozen or so hands pop up. Chief says, “Good, then you should be able to drive a paintbrush”.

[bigsarge]

We did it in the Army as well, brass door-pulls, kick-plates, etc., etc. Even some Dress uniform accoutrements were brass. Painting rocks, cutting grass with scissors, and more.

[Kevin-godw]

I was a volunteer on a heritage steam railway for over thirty years. When you started as an engine cleaner, the first thing you did in the morning was polish the brass and copper fittings before they got too hot. If you got the chance there was always lots to polish in the cab.
Once I qualified as a fireman, the pipework and fittings in the cab got cleaned and polished as time permitted. Not only did it look good for the many visitors, but it was also a way of tracing the pipework to work out what went where. I even carried a bottle of 'Brasso' in my bag, so if I was delayed anywhere for a period I had something to do.

[gregoryfaith]

I remember my ship had a stockpile of "Never Dull" Metal Polish. I used a few pieces to polish a 3in gun shell casing I grabbed before two spent shells were spared from being thrown over the side during the guns last firing before being removed and replaced with a TOMAHAWK MISSILE LAUNCHER SET.
That stuff works great!

I still to this day own those two casings and an aluminum 5 in spent casing off of the USS Long Beach gun.

[KenR]

Working in Lumber at Home Depot, a common "busy work" task was to flat stack the lumber. That is to make it more like a squared off bunk of lumber and less like a pile of pick-up sticks. This did have an actual function as it helps keep the boards from warping into all kinds of modern art forms that nobody wants.

[HMSGT]

*This reminds me of a story about a very important person that did inspections as part of his visit. Supposedly he said he thought all the facilities he visited just naturally smelled like fresh paint...!*

[CSSVirginia]

Used to work in a fire station that had been built in the 1920s. Every Tuesday we polished brass. Yes, the pole included.

[jarvisfamily]

When I was in the service the standard-issue belt buckle for officers was brass and was required to be kept polished. Was happy when I reported aboard ship and learned that I could wear a belt buckle purchased from the ship's store which had the ships name and motto and crest on it - and since it was chromed it never had to be polished. 🙂

[oceanmariner]

When I was in the USN as a QM, we had a lot of brass on the bridge. We learned to polish, wipe with acetone to remove the residue, and then use spray varathane and it was good for months or maybe forever. Well worth the cost of the spray for the QMs.

[charlesmaurer]

One tip on cleaning brass for a finer finish, Keep a bit of ammonia based Windex with you when the residue from the basso gets tough to wipe back off spray a part of a clean rag then finish with a dry section. Also over time sun will change the finish on brass. I did a lot in a church for a few years and the sun actually left a shadow line on the plate from the handle on a few of the doors. Most brass cleaners are ammonia based and "like cleans like" is why with heavy work the Windex really helps. The Church I worked for had a lot of brass and many plates on doors were as brown as the brown paint on the rest the door when I started while others were kept bright on the main floor. It was time intensive but over the few years I was there each plate got a proper clean at least once. While you didn't want to mention what that smells like, one can just think of a men's room urinal wall. Don't make a habit of mixing cleaners but read the active ingredients and if two are the same base they can often be used together safely alternating to avoid tough build ups resistant to cleaning. I do start with the caution though because mixing some cleaners can be deadly and the reactions creates gases that can be dangerous. Also on that line Windex has an ammonia free version that will not work as I described. In the church our go to cleaners were often Ammonia based from wipes, to glass and surface cleaners. Vinegar and water was an alternate for glass when doing large areas, there were times we used bleach for some jobs and a citrus oil cleaner for wood.

[Plaprad]

I actually got in trouble for polishing stuff on my 130. Had some free time during an ISO and spent hours polishing anything I thought I could get shiny.

Turns out, metal with a near mirror finish can be hell when using NOD's at night. So... No more polishing for me.

Though, the flight crews loved my hot pink throttles. But that's another story.

[TheMohnus]

Hey Mr. Szimanski, indont know if you even remember me today, but as you were leaving the Battleship, i actually saw you and pointed you out to my friend."Hey, look, its the museum Curators!" Do you remember me? If not, its all cool, it enjoyed the visit today to Battleship New Jersey. All the staff were incredibly polite and respectful and thats a huge part of what made my visit so great. One of your staff members actually gave me and my friend a tour of the Magazine and Powder room below Turret 2 and even the fire control and CIC. It was awesome to see the New Jersey, I hope I can come back soon!

[Odin]

Now we know how Ryan got to be the curator. He polished up the handle of the big front door.

[larrydavis]

I polished turnbuckles around our quarter deck on the US Coney DD508 on the mid-watch.

[DanFink-jmmd]

When I was COMMO on New Jersey 89-91 we used "Nevr Dull" brass polish, it was basically cotton wadding impregnated with brass polish. We didn't have to wash the polishing rags, as we bought huge bales of rags (torn up old clothing that was recycled) and just threw them away afterwards.