Cleaning Copper Caper

This past weekend, I scored this beautiful copper coffee pot at an estate sale.

It even had the cute little card inside, but that did not have any cleaning instructions inside.

So once I brought it into the house, I decided to give it a quick wash just to remove the surface dust. Then I thought I might try to polish it up just a bit. Then I decided I liked the polished finish, so I kept cleaning. So first, I tried my trusty Cape Cod Metal Polish, which typically does the job with little effort, and a pleasant scent too.

It was working, but that required a lot of elbow grease. So, I pulled out my Mr. Clean Dry Eraser Sponge.

That also worked, but I was still using a lot of elbow grease. And I am all about getting stuff done quickly and not using up all of my energy so that I can’t go tile the front hall or build a table top. So now I had dull coffee pot with shiny spots. My mom suggested salt and lemon juice-nope. So I went online to see if anyone else had come up with a non-elbow-grease solution to clean tarnished copper. Some guy on You Tube had created a magical formula from everyday kitchen items: salt, flour and white vinegar. So because everything you see on the internet is true, and I liked the idea of not using chemicals anyway, I decided to try it. Here is the recipe: Place 1 tsp salt and 3 tsp flour in a small bowl, then slowly add enough white vinegar to make a creamy paste. Looks good enough to eat, right?

At first I added too much vinegar and it was watery, so I added another dose of the flour and salt. Bingo! Nice smooth paste, ready to make my copper pot shiny and new. The video said to pat it on the item with a rag-I used a moist sponge, but you get the idea, you want to coat the surface.

Then allow it to sit for thirty minutes.

Then rinse. No rubbing or buffing required!

In the video, his copper-clad saucepan came alive with pretty copper color-away old tarnish! In my kitchen sink, this technique was a big FAIL. No difference after I had rinsed, then rubbed, then rinsed again. Hmmm. So now I have a beautiful copper coffee pot that is shiny and bright in the middle of each side, but tarnished all around the bottom and tops.