Polishing The Bronze On A Visconti H.s. Bronze Age

[Tinjapan]

Have a Visconti H.S. Bronze Age pen and would like to polish the bronze with out affecting the cap and barrel material. Any known methods that work?

[Uncial]

If you still have the box it came in there should be a very thin drawer in one side of it with a tiny bronze polishing cloth in a clear plastic wrapper.

[Tinjapan]

Thanks.

 

Bought it secind hand without box etc.. You wouldn’t happen to have a pic if one and/or the trade name so that I might hunt one down, would you?

[Uncial]

It has no trade name sadly. Being bronze though, if you have a cloth for cleaning spectacles simply rubbing that on the bronze should bring it up without any need for added polish of abrasives.

[Tweel]

You could probably also use a Sunshine polishing cloth -- either the standard yellow one or the softer blue. They're made in Japan.

 

http://www.sunshinepolishingcloth.com

[Tinjapan]

I have Sunshine cloth (funny though, I can’t seem to find them here, have had to buy them from overseas) but not sure what they might do to the body of the pen, which is quite porous.

[Tweel]

That I can't say, although they don't seem to leave much residue.

[Occipital Lobe]

I think you need to be very careful with the sides of the clip, so you won´t polish off the Applied logo.

[Tinjapan]

Ah, yes. Thanks for the reminder.

[aardvarkbark]

Let patina be your friend!

[Ron Z]

If you want to protect the barrel, slip a 3X5 card under the clip and wrap around the barrel before you polish.

[Corsacalimero]

Dont do that. The patina is part of the wonderful selection of material Visconti do.

[Aditkamath26]

My answer is going to be really quite strange. I don't own a Visconti Homosapiens Bronze Age but I do a lot of polishing. For polishing bronze and brass, my favorite thing is TOOTHPASTE. It works like a dream. Just use a soft cloth and a tiny dab of toothpaste and rub the trims. Toothpaste is abrasive enough to remove the patina but not so much to scratch the metal. In case you want to be extra careful and make it not touch the body, use a Q-Tip or a cotton bud. Or even your pinky finger for extra control. Start with the clip first and see if it does work for you. And remember.....tiny amount of it is key to not getting it on the body.

 

Hope this helps.

[Tinjapan]

My main concern is getting whichever polishing agent on the body material. Don’t want to mar the barrel or cap. The most difficult is the bronze ring between the barrel and filling knob.

 

I served in the navy for six years. Bright work gots to be bright. Thought I could resist but find it hard to than I thought.

[Aditkamath26]

You could cover the body with paper towels and tape them tightly.

[Tinjapan]

Hmm, if the polishing agent will mar the body, not sure I want to give this a try.

[zchen]

About 2 years ago I wanted to seen how shiny the bronze trim can be polished to and took a jeweler's rouge cloth to the bronze parts. The biggest issue is not the body getting marred as the resin/lava mix is very tough, the issue is that it is porous and careful as I was the cap still attracted a fair amount of red rouge material on the cloth and took on the red color. It required some effort to clean off, I ended up using the Visconti recommended cleaning method of hand cream(if you do a search of homo sapiens hand cream on FPN you'll find the related posts). It does look good all polished up but the patina returns rather quickly if not in use so I have not done it again.

Edited April 22, 2018 by zchen

[europen]

A late reply, but chamois (goatskin) is perfect for polishing gold, silver, bronze, and does not mar the barrel.

[JemC]

Echoing the above comments, something like a Sunshine cloth will be fine. Tape the body and piston knob if you want. Hand cream works well at restoring the basaltic resin to it's natural state, in case anything goes slightly awry in your polishing endeavors.