Turning Turtle

So, we have one of these brass tortoises/turtles with a shell that opens up. Over the years, the shine has worn off and I’ve tried a lot of scrubbing with Brasso but the gleam just wouldn’t show.

I was reading a post on Saffron and Silk where beautiful brass lamps gleamed in the diya-light. I asked Kamini what she used to clean brass and she suggested I use ‘Pitambari’ powder.

Pitambari is not new to me – we’ve used it in Bombay for years. Its effectiveness always made me wonder how good it was for the metal – surely something that took off years of grime and oxidisation in a few minutes must be teeming with harsh chemicals?

Anyway, since this wasn’t a valuable object, I thought I’d reacquaint myself with the marvels of Pitambari. Here’s Mr. T before:

 

Ten minutes, a little Pitambari and some elbow grease later:

Whoa.

Have you used Pitambari to clean your brass? What do you think of it? Do you use a cloth or scourer to scrub the metal?