Almost four years have passed since we had our privacy fence installed. Each fence post was topped with a beautiful shiny copper cap. They gleamed in the sun and made the fence look amazing. Time has passed and I seriously neglected those caps. Big mistake! Don’t neglect your copper! I needed to restore them back to their original beauty… or at least attempt to. Today I’m going to show you How to Polish Copper naturally.
See what four years of neglected copper looks like. It’s not pretty is it? I certainly didn’t pay extra to have ugly tarnished, bird pooped stained, copper caps. It was time to take responsibility and clean these babies up!
My mom used to own many copper pots and pans and I remember her trying to keep them polished and looking beautiful. She informed me that the best way to keep your copper clean is to first of all, not let it get tarnished! Ok, mega fail #1 on my part. Now what? Mom used a chemical polish and I did try one but it didn’t work well at all. It smelled horrid and toxic and I didn’t feel comfortable using it. On to plan “B”. Let’s try the old fashioned, natural way to polish copper by using salt and lemon.
Cut 1/3 off the end of a lemon and pour a very generous amount of salt on lemon.
Rub the lemon in small circular motions all over the copper, squeezing a bit of juice out as you go. Add more salt and repeat until the copper tarnish is removed. Now I will be totally honest with you all. It did not remove as much as I had hoped but I think you can see the huge difference it did make. I am kicking myself for not maintaining the copper over the years.
Just look at the difference between the two sides! After all sides were polished, I rinsed the copper cap off with some water and dried it with a towel. Then I applied a light coat of olive oil and buffed the copper cap to a warm glow.
So now instead of blackened fence post caps, I have pretty copper caps that glisten when the sun hits them! I’m excited with the results, even though it takes some effort. I did also experiment with salt and white vinegar and found it didn’t work as well as the lemon did. Besides, the lemon smells so much nicer than vinegar!
So far I have polished 4 copper caps and I only have 5 to go! Time to buy another lemon!Oh yes, I should remind you to wear some gloves. The lemon juice and salt won’t hurt you at all, but if you don’t want to have Shrek-green fingernails, then wear some gloves! How do you polish your copper? Do you have any copper pieces you love?
Kim
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We had Copper bottom post growing up and I was the dish washer 😉 We used some sprinkle on powder, can’t recall the name? This was a great info post! It’s a lovely fence and that Hydrangea is pretty too!
I have another organic recipe for you to try.. it doesn’t include elbow grease =).. you take some yogurt straight yogurt not the fruited one.. you mix it with an equal amount of water and whisk it a bit with a fork .. put it in a pan and start to cook just before it starts to boil.. you pour in the juice of half a lemon.. this makes the yogurt form clumps.. (it gets sour) you pour this liquid clumps and all.. over the copper object.. the moment it touches the tarnished copper.. a miracle.. it take the original colour.. just rince and dry.. ( if it is very tarnished it might require a second application or let it sit with the yogurt thing.. ) comfartable eco friendly =) and easier..
Nice tip 🙂 I love the hydrangea too!
Nice tip 🙂 I love the hydrangea too!
Ketchup. Blob it on, wait, wipe it off. Tada!
Hehehe, I was going to post this same thing…my Grandma used to clean her copper bottom pots with this method 🙂
Yes, I have used that on my copper and it really does work!….So much better than the harsh chemical cleaners!!…The caps look beautiful on that great fence….pretty hydrangeas too!!!
It works well, thank you for sharing. Hugs!
Great cleaning method, thanks for sharing 🙂 I read somewhere that you can clean copper with ketchup – I tried it, but it didn’t really work very well.
Love your hydrangeas! Mine are growing very slowly this year. I think the warm week we had in March messed up their metabolism or something. I’m afraid they may not grown flowers this year. Enjoy yours!
Kelly
Olive oil!?! Good to know. I knew about the lemon and salt, but after a year, I’m just letting our copper deck railings tarnish, they are 18 inches wide so I don’t think I could keep up if I tried:)
Jessica
stayathomeista.com
I use Tarn-X…just pour it on and there’s NO scrubbing !
Salt and vinegar works too.
Not exactly organic but safer than chemicals at least – Cool Aid. My husband works with plummers and if their copper fittings start to tarnish, they’ll soak them in cool aid overnight. He said they’ll come out brand new
*plumbers.
I love the fence and the hydrangea. Oh, how I wish they would grow in Florida!! Beautiful. We used Bartender’s Best Friend (powder in a cylander) to clean our copper pans. I love the lemon and the salt. Now to find something copper to clean.
Hi, thank you for sharing your experience using this natural recipe. Do you have any natural recipe how to clean bronze?
Hi Silvia! I don’t have a natural recipe for cleaning bronze. I’m sorry. All those bronze cleaners from the stores smell horrid too, so if you find a good recipe I’d love to hear about it. 😉
I also know baking soda and lemon clean your jewelry too.
I HAVE THE SAME ONE’S ON MY FENCE, BUT I PUT A CLEAR SPRAY VARNISH ON THEM BEFORE I INSTALLED THEM. THEY STILL LOOK LIKE THE DAY I PUT THEM UP.
So smart! Wish I had done that!