
Do you regularly wash in horse urine?
Do you regularly splash acid all over your skin?

During the 1700´s, metal polish was not available so the butlers and servants made their own polish. The horse was the major means of transport, so large houses had a stable full of horses and hence a regular supply of straw bedding and urine. The straw was ground into a coarse powder and then mixed with the urine to make a paste. This paste mixture was found to be a good cleaner for brass and copper items.
Similarly the cooks would make pickles, jams, marmalade and preserves in the kitchen with the produce from the fields and garden. Copper and brass were used extensively as cooking implements during the 1700´s and 1800´s, and during the cooking process it was found that the acid from the fruits and the vinegar used for preserving made the copper and brass items clean.

The acid etches the surface of the metal and can cause the conditions for pitting and crevice corrosion to begin. The acid also speeds up the oxidation process, so you have to polish more often. Ammonia is an extremely bad liquid to use on brass because brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and the ammonia dissolves the zinc creating the holes known as pitting. This process is known as dezincification.
If that was not bad enough, the abrasives used are usually too coarse causing surface scratches but worse still wears away the metal item.
At first glance pH Neutral metal polishes maybe slightly more expensive when compared with the cheaper alternatives, but on closer examination this may not prove to be the case. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of these polishes
Subject Eco Friendly Polish Eco Unfriendly Polish
Cause pollution No Yes
Cause pitting No Yes
Cause wear No Yes
Polish shelf life Indefinite Goes Hard
Cost to buy Higher Seemingly Cheaper
Re-polishing 1 or 2 per year 25 to 50 per year
Bottle lasts 1 every 3 to 5 years 2 or more per year
Health hazard No Can cause skin irritation

Easy Shine is a pH Neutral metal polish that does not harm the environment nor the item you are trying to conserve.
For more information about environment friendly conservation and restoration products visit our website www.rarity4u.com