An unusual request was made of our services recently. A client in Randwick had an old table lamp that had a brass lamp base which would have been well over 50 years old. The finish on the brass was very badly tarnished and had fine paint ‘splatters’ on it as well as considerable discoloration caused by years of handling and being in a smokers home. The owner of the lamp asked if we could ‘resurrect’ the appearance of the lamp base.

To tackle the project we firstly disassembled the lamp, removing the lamp shade and the electrical power cable going to the light fitting itself. We then washed the lamp base in hot soapy water and scrubbed it with a stiff, plastic bristled brush. It is amazing how using a bit of good old ‘elbow grease’ can make a huge difference. Once we had scrubbed the lamp base we rinsed it thoroughly with hot water and let the base dry. We then used brasso – a metal cleaning product that has been around for many years to go all over the lamp base. Brasso has a slightly abrasive property which is why it is effective on metal products. It can really bring back the shine to many metals and metallic items. After about 20 minutes of polishing the base with brasso it came up very nicely, revealing the original beauty of the brass. Next we thoroughly cleaned all traces of brasso from the lamp base and washed it again in warm water and then left it to dry in the sun. Next, to prevent the brass finish from tarnishing, we sprayed a very thin coat of lacquer onto the lamp base. The result was fantastic and all we had to do then was to reassemble the lamp – project completed!