Expert: Martin G Roberts - 3/30/2004

Question

Do you know of a good way to restore the luster to the surface of a large old copper kettle which was possibly used for making apple butter? I've tried several brands of copper polishing products, i.e.Metal-All, Copper Penny, etc. with  little success and a lot of elbow grease. Will a lye solution work or will it damage the kettle?

Answer
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I would suggest you use a more specialised product designed to remove tarnish from copper. Your e-mail suggests you are in the USA, while I am in the UK, and the names of products tend to be different, so it is difficult to recommend by name. But look for something that does more than polishing - you need something that claims to remove tarnish, verdi-gris and the like.

A lye solution would be inadvisable - I have no idea what effect this would likely have on copper.

Martin