Tips and Tricks for cleaning and storing old brass lenses

[maxi0909]

Hello Gentlemen,

since my collection of brass lenses is raising, I asked myself an important question.

How should I store and clean my lenses correctly, so they can last for a lifetime or more than that.

I´m very excited for your tips :)

[Greg]

For myself, I carefully take the lens apart (if I can) and very carefully clean the glass with Kodak Lens Cleaner and Kodak lens cleaning paper. If this doesn't work, I then clean the lens with Kodak Film cleaner followed by cleaning with distilled water. For the brass and other metal parts I use distilled water with a very soft cleaning cloth which gets washed after each use. Patina on the brass is never altered or changed in any way. Lenses are stored face up in a cabinet on a large sheet of archival 4 ply board. Humidity kept at between 35-45%. Lenses are taken out and used as I would any of my newer lenses. Getting proper caps for the lenses has always been a problem. When they are transported outside for use, I just wrap them up in a folding velcro lens protector.

[Jim Noel]

I never touch a lens with the sandpaper called "lens tissue." Look at it under a microscope. I only use finely powdered activated charcoal on cotton q-tip. Been doing this for at least 50 years. Never had even a microscopic scratch.

[Jody_S]

I have a repurposed china cabinet for lenses. Nothing fancy, I just pack all the lenses in there as high as I can stack them. I have 2 or 3 moisture control cans in there, basically the same stuff as in the moisture control packets that come with everything now, except they're in a larger container and I microwave them every spring to dry them out. Dollar store has them.

[DanteALG]

To manually clean the lenses, you can find different guides, but the situation is a bit more challenging for tile and grout cleaning.
I know what I am talking about as I had a lot of trouble with bathroom cleaning.
Luckily, I found a company that provides tile and grout cleaning services.
If you also confronted this problem and couldn't find a way to fix it, you may check the company I am talking about.
They provide professional tile and grout cleaning (https://niftytilecleaning.com.au/tile-cleaning-melbourne/), so if you are interested, go ahead and contact them.
In case you would like to call them, here is their phone number:
493 849 492.

[Tin Can]

Listen to Jim

I try to never clean a new lens, some are 20 years old/new. I only clean old glass if absolutely necessary

Don't remove patina on old lenses

High humidity is a problem in some areas, fungus

I now store all glass in a dedicated 'outgas free' metal cabinet that does move a bit of air in and out

Next lens I 'clean' will get activated charcoal and q tip as I just learned of that technique

It was a big secret until recently




I never touch a lens with the sandpaper called "lens tissue." Look at it under a microscope. I only use finely powdered activated charcoal on cotton q-tip. Been doing this for at least 50 years. Never had even a microscopic scratch.