Refurbishing Cabinet Hardware

Contemplating a kitchen upgrade, we found the cabinets to be in good shape - the handles and drawer pulls, not so much. The thirty year old handles and pulls are no longer available, and any new ones would need to match the hole spacing and cover the marks left by the old ones. The cost for 53 replacement handles and pulls plus 53 plates to cover the old marks, $280.

I thought I would try to restore the original brass-finish handles and pulls. There are many procedures for cleaning brass, however these handles and pulls appear to be a brass finish (only) with a lacquer coating.

I used a fine wire wheel on my bench grinder followed by a spray lacquer finish. Each piece took about 5 minutes on the bench grinder. As the photos show (before on the right, after on the left), the final color is silver, clearly not brass, however it is uniform and clean looking. I am pleased with the result.