How to Clean Copper
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You probably already have some of this under the sink somewhere - if you don’t, get some! Since the copper you’re wanting to clean is probably rounded instead of flat, pour a little BKF powder onto the counter next to the sink. Dip a wet dishrag into the powder, then carefully clean the copper with it a small section at a time. Rinse the copper clean and then buff it dry so it will shine. Don’t let the copper air dry, that can leave spots or give birth to more tarnish.
Polish your copper with a combination of white vinegar and salt…just watch the tarnish disappear!! Cheaper and much safer than all those expensive and toxic copper cleaners in the stores.
A heavy layer of tarnish might require a repetition of this process but your copper (especially copper bottom revereware pots and pans) will end up sparkling like new!!
Lemon juice and vinegar may be great for cleaning copper, but you shouldn’t cook things that have a lot of acid in them in a copper pot. The chemical reaction between the acid and the copper causes copper to leach out into the acidic food being cooked, and too much copper is toxic to humans. Modern copper cookware is usually lined with something else to prevent this from happening, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
This is the old standby, it cleans a lot of things. The easiest way is to cut a lemon in half, dip the cut end in salt and scrub the copper with it, reapplying salt to the lemon half as necessary. You can use vinegar and salt instead, but it doesn’t work any better than the lemon juice and smells infintely worse.
I use these to clean my copper pots, although I wouldn’t use them for cleaning antiques. Just get some of those steel wool pads that have the blue soap inside them. Wet the pad, then gently scrub the copper clean. Thoroughly wipe or rinse off the blue soap, then buff the copper dry with a soft towel.
Some silver cleaners, the kind you dip silver in to remove tarnish, also work on tarnished copper. If what you’re trying to clean is too big to dip, you can put on a pair of chemical-proof rubber gloves and use a cloth dipped in the tarnish remover to clean your copper instead.