Okay to wax brass?

**mikebai1990** · 04-09-2007, 12:52 PM

We just installed a storm door onto our front door (did it ourselves, my dad and I

), and it has a brass doorknob. I`ve heard a lot of brass finishes tarnishing due to wear and in general, the outdoors. I was reading the maintenance procedures, and the instructions say that the material is solid pure brass with a clearcoat. Since cars also have clearcoats, I was wondering whether waxing it with a nonabrasive paste wax (Collinite 476S comes to mind

) would help prevent future tarnishing.

**coupe** · 04-09-2007, 01:26 PM

It wont tarnish if it has a CC.

**kompressornsc** · 04-09-2007, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by Coupe

It wont tarnish if it has a CC.

But it will when the CC fails. Especially if you get any salt air where you are, wax all exposed parts. Won`t completely protect it, but will help the CC survive a bit longer. When I lived in Charleston, I had a brass mail slot. About 6 months before the clear coat would start to fail (no matter how much wax). First couple of times polished it up to like new and watched it tarnish again. Finally gave up and just spent $15 on a new one couple of times a year. Salt air eats CC on brass extremely fast.

**mikebai1990** · 04-09-2007, 09:56 PM

Originally Posted by Coupe

It wont tarnish if it has a CC.

Wait a second... That`s like saying the paint on the car will not have clearcoat failure if it has a CC, which translates to a car does not need to be waxed??

I think we have a logical fallacy here

**coupe** · 04-10-2007, 06:12 AM

The CC would have to fail on the knob for it to tarnish so technicaly im right by what i said. As long as it has a CC it wont tarnish. A door knob wont see the same abuse either as a cars paint does either IMO.

**mikebai1990** · 04-10-2007, 09:13 AM

Good point! Anyways, I got by whole storm door waxed today and topped with AW. It`ll be fun watching the water beads when it starts to rain

**Setec Astronomy** · 04-10-2007, 09:30 AM

When are you going to polish/wax the aluminum cladding on the windows? Slacker!!

I like to wash the (outside) windows, frames and sills with a car wash I didn`t like, and then wax everything up with a wax I didn`t like (some day I`ll finish up that old bottle of GC liquid wax...).