Spray your steel liberally with vinegar.
If you do not want to use a spray bottle, you can moisten a cloth in vinegar and evenly rub the item. For light polishing, dilute the vinegar with water (1/2 cup of vinegar for every quart of warm water). Polish with undiluted vinegar on items with heavy staining.
The most straightforward thing to do is just polish it with steel wool (from course to fine) and then add a metal polish and polish with a rag. But if that is all you do, then the metal will still be vulnerable to corrosion. So after you polish you should coat it in a polymer coating.
Baking Soda Works Wonders On Silver Items
Metal objects like these are surprisingly easily dealt with by water and baking soda, and it's an option that involves very little in the way of scrubbing. After just a few minutes in this solution, you only need to remove them, rinse and dry.
White vinegar, olive oil, and even baby oil can be effectively used to polish stainless steel if you don't have a specialized cleaner around. Simply coat your piece of steel with one of these cleaners, then wipe the piece down with a microfiber cloth to polish it.
How do you make metal shiny again? While you'll want to tailor your cleaning methods to the type of metal you're working with, a 50-50 solution of distilled white vinegar and water is effective for most tarnished metals.
Regular dish soap and warm water will clean off any of the surface dirt or grime. After that, rub a lemon over the surface to restore the shine. A soft cloth soaked in white vinegar will also do the trick! Just make sure you rinse the vinegar off with some warm water when you're done.
Vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda or cola, mixed with hot water, are sufficient options for this and treat the affected surfaces effectively. Oxidised tin can be cleaned with a lye solution. Simply add mild soap or washing-up liquid to warm water and leave the mixture to work on the affected area.
Metals appear shiny because they contain vacant electrons. When these loose electrons come in contact with the light energy, they start vibrating and moving randomly in every direction in the metal. So, The light energy incident upon it gets reflected. Thus, metals appear shiny and lustrous.
To make your new, shiny metal appear old, you can antique it with paint. You can also tarnish it using corrosive materials, such as acid cleaner, vinegar, and salt. It may seem like a big project, but all you need is some ordinary household products to make a metal object age several years in just a few hours or so.
Vinegar is highly acidic and should (almost) never be used on stainless steel because it can begin to eat through the protective coating over time. While it may not be evident at first, you will gradually start to dull the surface as the acid eats its way through the exterior coating and will make an uneven finish.
Delicately scrape the glossy exterior using fine-grit sandpaper (around 220 to 400 grit). The goal is to create a slightly roughened texture to make the matte finish. Avoid applying excessive pressure to prevent damaging the metal surface.
Restore shine
Take 2 tablespoons of baking soda in a bowl, add half a lemon to it, now add a little bit of water and mix well to make a paste. Take a little bit of the paste on a sponge and smear it all over the steel utensils. Let the utensil sit like this for 1-2 hours.
WD-40 Multi-Use Product is the smart way to restore shine to dull metal surfaces. Designed to protect metal surfaces against corrosion and moisture, keep a can of WD-40 handy to help restore shine to your metal surfaces. Simply spray, wipe and you're ready to go!
Soapy water, WD-40, and even toothpaste can be used to polish metals, but actual polishes work a lot better and a lot faster.
Stainless steel resists corrosion, and vinegar is mild enough to break down dirt and grease without causing great harm, but damage is possible. Vinegar's acidity can corrode metal, especially if it mixes with salt. Vinegar can also dry out rubber, causing your dishwasher's rubber gaskets to shrivel, crack, and leak.