I bought a vintage kitchen knife on eBay. It was in excellent condition, except that its SS blade was a bit tarnished. I expected that my usual chrome/metal polish would fix that – but it didn't. Then I tried Barkeepers Friend. That helped, but progress was slow. Finally, I bought a 50g tube of Happich Simichrome metal polish via Amazon Prime. I've known of this stuff for years, but had never used it before. And it worked! One application got 90% of the tarnish off. A second application got the two remaining spots off. This stuff is good!

The only downside is that the carrier is petroleum – it won't rinse off, you have to wash it off with detergent.

Expensive on a per ounce basis, but well worth the cost.

That really is a good product. Back in the days before Flitz was available, I used Simichrome on my alloy bike parts. It shined them up super nice and left a protective coating as well. I actually prefer it to Flitz but Simichrome has gotten hard to find.

I need more since I just finished the small tube I had. The small tube probably lasted 15 or 20 years.

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:
I need more since I just finished the small tube I had. The small tube probably lasted 15 or 20 years.

I discovered this stuff when bumpers were still chrome. I don't think there's been a time since that I didn't have a tube on hand. And they do last forever!

NEVR-DULL is another product which works well for such applications and is priced quite reasonably.

About everything mentioned here will shine chrome like no other...and remove it twice as quick or more. Any late model tuff has thin, cheap chroming. You can rub right though it.

When my two SIGs were new, their feed ramps were nicely polished. I don't have any feeding issues, but the feed ramps no longer have that nicely polished look. I suspect the cause is brass deposits from bullet jackets, and wonder if Simichrome would take that off. Does anyone have experience with that?

I don't think there's any way Simichrome will hurt the steel feedramp of a pistol barrel. It will definitely remove tarnish. I wouldn't use it on anodized aluminum like a Sig frame, though.

Flitz and Simichrome are both lightly abrasive. Lightly, but abrasive nonetheless. Be aware of that.

And, I am not saying the OP did any harm, but remember that some vintage items (genuine antiques) may be diminished in value by polishing, refinishing or aggressive cleaning. When in doubt involving a genuine antique or item of real value, don't do any cleaning until you are sure you aren't doing harm.

I have a 100 year old train lantern from my great grandfather that my aunt polished with something - probably steel wool. I have no intention to sell it, and it isn't very valuable anyway, but I strongly suspect that the 100 year old patina made the item better and possibly more valuable than the aggressively scrubbed version I now have.

Here's what I was thinking of doing: Put some Simichrome on a Q-Tip, then rub the feed ramp with it. Not too aggressive, I think.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Here's what I was thinking of doing: Put some Simichrome on a Q-Tip, then rub the feed ramp with it. Not too aggressive, I think.

That will be fine. It certainly won't remove any measurable amount of steel and will clean up the gunk. And polishing the parts of a working gun isn't like polishing the blue off Billy the Kid's pistol.

We used that on all our brass in the Army. Shiny