I found a couple of websites that suggest using vinegar to polish
copper. Today I verified that it works great. I soaked a greenish
copper chain in hot vinegar, and it cleaned right up.
What you get when you do this is copper acetate, which is a natural
copper-based fungicide: certainly more natural than copper sulfate from
sulfuric acid.
Today I found an excellent way to separate it from the remaining
vinegar. I used the soaking water to wet a clean white cloth, and hung
it out to dry. Overnight the vinegar will evaporate, leaving behind a
cloth permeated with copper acetate crystals (a tiny bit, anyway, since
I didn't clean a lot of copper).
If ye just use vinegar as a copper polish on larger objects, and
economize on vinegar, copper acetate will accumulate in the rag. Just
blot up the last of the vinegar, lay the rag out to dry, rinse the
copper acetate out of the dried rag, and apply the diluted rinse water
to blighted plants.
Best to use gloves, as with any metal polish.
Bill
S. OR Coast
Bill
