Polishing brass items...other than bullets

[The Arapaho Kid]

To  my CAS ensemble I added three brass match safes.  One has matches in in...the other ones have my SASS Business cards.  When I got these they were horribly tarnished up.  I used Brasso on one and it took a lotta elbow grease and time.  Went snooping for better ways to polish brass.  Found one!  Common household items.  A mixture of toothpaste and Worchestershire sauce does wonders for tarnished brass!  I use a folded 4 X 4 gauze pad and that mixture cleans tarnished brass like lightning!  After it's polished up, rinse it off with warm water, then buff it up with a soft cloth.  If you have items like badges, match safes and other brass thingies....use that mixture on them!  Trust me!  It works!

[J.W.Neely]

....and it's good on a T-bone steak........

[Curley Cole]

What I use to polish brass and about everything (including my new poly-ivory grips) is SemiChrome polish. It actually has jewlers rouge in it so it also takes out scratches etc. it only takes a little bit.
give it a try...
curley

[Book Miser]

Worchestershire sauce

I wonder why that helps. Could be the toothpaste is good enough on its own, and somebody was pullin' your leg about the other ingredient.

Simichrome is great. It has a side-benefit, if you deal in old plastics. One way to tell whether something is bakelite or some other resin is to rub it in an inobtrusive spot with a bit of Simichrome. Only bakelite will leave an orange colored residue on the rag.

Metal-Glo looks a lot like Simichrome, and works as good for polishing, but (unbelievably!) does not do the bakelite test.

I never cared much for Brasso, because it separates in the can. Time you spend shaking is time you could spend buffing.

[The Arapaho Kid]

I found that toothpaste/Worchestershire sauce mixture on the Ask Jeeves site.  I think you're right on toothpaste alone.  Doesn't it have some kind of microscopic grit in it?

[Book Miser]

Yep. Worcestershire does contain some vinegar, which would tend to neutralize the pH of the toothpaste, which is somewhat alkaline. (Too many dependent clauses?)

Toothpaste mostly contains a bit of pumice, which can be ground as fine or as coarse as the job warrants.

I generally prefer using abrasives for the purpose they are made. With toothpaste, for example, there's no telling whether Crest (or whoever) keeps the product mix constant. There are a lotta good metal polishes around.