Here is the Before and After of a polished brass door rosette.
These brass door hinges had at least four layers of paint on them that all had to come off.
My main equipment for this job is a $14.99 crock pot that I bought years ago at Walmart. This particular pot is ONLY used for stripping paint ... I have another one that we use for cooking.
Fill the crock pot about 3/4 full of water, with a small squirt of dish soap ... add the hardware, put the lid on the crock pot, set it to High, and walk away from it for a few hours.
The beauty of this method of stripping paint is that you don't have to time it or watch it, and you can be off doing something else while it's happening. After a few hours, you'll see that the paint on your hardware is getting really loose.
I used tongs to remove one of the hinges.
See the loose paint?
Working quickly (and carefully, because this thing is hot), peel off the loose paint. As the piece cools, the paint will harden ... this is okay, just peel what you can and put it back into the pot for a while to soften up again.
This is all I could get off this hinge on the first try, so back into the pot it went.
After the hinges had stewed for a little while longer, I removed them one by one and used the edge of a plastic card to carefully scrape off the remaining paint. (I used my Panera card, which is now ruined.) Do NOT use a metal scraper or a wire brush, or you will scratch the brass.
To remove any remaining little bits of paint, and give the brass a good shine, I used 0000 steel wool.
These are the original 40+ year-old brass-plated Stanley hinges that were installed on our doors when the master bedroom was added to our house in 1967 ... looking as good as new again.
I would have liked to have left a bit of patina on the hinges and other hardware, but it wasn't possible ... considering what it took to get all the paint off of them. Since they are unlacquered brass, I expect it won't take any time at all for them to start to oxidize and darken again.
The jewelry on this project will be late-1800s (or early 1900s) pressed glass Mercury-filled door knobs. There were a few of these on some of the doors in our house when we bought it, and I have added more when I find them for a good price.
Here is a word of warning: Before you try this method of paint stripping on your own hardware, take a minute to determine exactly what you have. Old iron hinges shouldn't be boiled like this, because they will rust. If your hardware has a unique patina or finish, scrubbing it with steel wool will probably ruin it. In my case, the hardware I am using is plain polished brass ... and this didn't hurt it a bit.
At the end of the day, all of the hinges, rosettes, escutcheons, and screws were clean and shiny ... and they are all ready to be used as the beautiful finishing touches on our closet doors.
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If you haven't been following our master bedroom closet project, click these links to get caught up.
Construction Day One
Construction Day Two
Construction Day Three
Construction Days Four and Five
Overview and Final Reveal