So I recently bought my first bronze watch.
I love the look of Maddog buckles and also the H20 buckles and I went looking.
I was fortunate to find a member who was selling the exact two buckles I was looking for.
When they arrived, there was a thick (?) patina on both of them. (I knew that when I bought them.)
While I am so not OCD, I thought that it would look strange, the virgin bronze head and patina'd buckles so I decided to return the buckles to their original finish.
After consulting with Professor Google, I found that there were a few ways to clean bronze.
There was the soaking cola but I remember watching a video where someone left a nail in cola for a time and at the end, the cola dissolved the nail completely away. I realize that is a fairly extreme case but no.
There was the toothpaste method but I know that toothpaste contains abrasives to clean teeth. The abrasives are tiny but still, no.
The last method I looked into was baking soda and lemon juice. If it doesn't work, at least my hands will smell nice.
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Here are the buckles before any treatment.
They are a very dull color, almost brown with no green.
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Here is my baking soda and lemon.
And away we go.
According to Professor Google, one should put two or three teaspoons of baking soda in a bowl and add the juice of a half lemon, enough to create a paste. Then rub the paste all over the buckle and let it sit for thirty minutes.
When adding the lemon to the baking soda, it is normal for it to bubble up but if you wait a minute, it will settle.
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I decided to change things a little but making my paste in a tiny tupperware and basically burying the buckles in the paste and letting it sit.
I have to say that the combination was less like paste and more like sherbet but here they are.
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Leaving them to "simmer" for thirty minutes, you can see the results.
There is a clean strip but overall, the patina is still there so I re-buried them and left them to sit for another hour.
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After an hour and a half, there seemed to be no noticeable difference so I gave up and washed them off.
The final step was to wipe them off with a clean, lint-free cloth.
Hmm... this is not the result I was looking for.
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So, I tried one more thing - I remember reading somewhere that most polishing clothes can be used so I tried a silver polishing cloth I had.
I tried polishing one side and you can see the difference. It's like the clean strip expanded.
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It takes quite a bit of elbow grease but here is the end result.
This is what I was looking for.
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At this point, the buckles have become fingerprint magnets but that is something I'm willing to live with.
Anyways, this was my experience and as always, YMMV.
Thanks for reading.
I love the look of Maddog buckles and also the H20 buckles and I went looking.
I was fortunate to find a member who was selling the exact two buckles I was looking for.
When they arrived, there was a thick (?) patina on both of them. (I knew that when I bought them.)
While I am so not OCD, I thought that it would look strange, the virgin bronze head and patina'd buckles so I decided to return the buckles to their original finish.
After consulting with Professor Google, I found that there were a few ways to clean bronze.
There was the soaking cola but I remember watching a video where someone left a nail in cola for a time and at the end, the cola dissolved the nail completely away. I realize that is a fairly extreme case but no.
There was the toothpaste method but I know that toothpaste contains abrasives to clean teeth. The abrasives are tiny but still, no.
The last method I looked into was baking soda and lemon juice. If it doesn't work, at least my hands will smell nice.
Here are the buckles before any treatment.
They are a very dull color, almost brown with no green.
Here is my baking soda and lemon.
And away we go.
According to Professor Google, one should put two or three teaspoons of baking soda in a bowl and add the juice of a half lemon, enough to create a paste. Then rub the paste all over the buckle and let it sit for thirty minutes.
When adding the lemon to the baking soda, it is normal for it to bubble up but if you wait a minute, it will settle.
I decided to change things a little but making my paste in a tiny tupperware and basically burying the buckles in the paste and letting it sit.
I have to say that the combination was less like paste and more like sherbet but here they are.
Leaving them to "simmer" for thirty minutes, you can see the results.
There is a clean strip but overall, the patina is still there so I re-buried them and left them to sit for another hour.
After an hour and a half, there seemed to be no noticeable difference so I gave up and washed them off.
The final step was to wipe them off with a clean, lint-free cloth.
Hmm... this is not the result I was looking for.
So, I tried one more thing - I remember reading somewhere that most polishing clothes can be used so I tried a silver polishing cloth I had.
I tried polishing one side and you can see the difference. It's like the clean strip expanded.
It takes quite a bit of elbow grease but here is the end result.
This is what I was looking for.
At this point, the buckles have become fingerprint magnets but that is something I'm willing to live with.
Anyways, this was my experience and as always, YMMV.
Thanks for reading.