The Brasso Experiment

I think we all can agree that my house is basically one big antique. There's been several different estimates by inspectors about the actual age of the building. All I know is that in 1908 there was a Mr. Martin Purdy residing in it. So it was either built in 1908 or before. Obviously. There was also an addition added, possibly around 40 years ago according to the home inspector. So it's probably a safe bet to say that everything in the newer half of the building is not quite as old as in the older half.

I have no idea what the original layout of the house looked like, but here's my crude drawing of what it looks like now:

The older half of the house appears to end at the dining room, making me wonder where the kitchen existed previously. Who knows though, maybe the kitchen has just been so updated that you can't tell it's still an older section of the house.

Anyway, I'm digressing majorly. The handles on the kitchen cabinets looked mighty tarnished, so I figured I'd buy a bottle of Brasso (good stuff) and polish them up to see what they looked like before. In all honesty I'm not entirely sure what the cabinets looked like before. I wouldn't say they're as old as the original part of the building but they could have been refinished also, meaning they could've been another color. As it stands now, the tarnished handles go perfectly with the color of the wood. But they also looked kinda gross and tarnished.

I started with one handle and polished it up real nice. I was pretty surprised by what I found underneath 50-100 years of people's hand goo. It appears that my handles in the kitchen are copper. Solid copper. Makes me wonder what they're worth. However, it appears the tarnished handles may go better with the wood than the polished handle. I'm not sure yet. I also bought Murphy's Oil Soap for the wood and will clean those up to see what happens.

After discovering this treasure in my kitchen, I decided to roam about the house polishing random pieces of hardware. Amazing!! I think a big portion of the metal in this house is copper! However, doorknobs, for obvious reasons, have the most persistant gunk on them. I can refurbish all the old metal in this house and make it gleam!!
The before and after of the doorbell. Why yes, that second picture is sideways. Not relevent.

The doorknobs need a little more work. Very grungy. Let this be a lesson to you. A good portion of the tarnish on the metal is due to people's hands. There is so much gross stuff on our hands, including natural body oils. Eew!