Thank you for the compliments! This was the first time I restored this type of plate, and I considered the result very satisfactory.
Doug and Bernie, yes for sure I cleaned and polished the pivot holes after re-lacquering. I use a wood stick with a sharp pointed end (like a big toothpick) and a very small amout of polishing paste; introduce in the hole and rotate back and forth with my fingers many times, repeat for each hole. Then a quick wash to remove the most of the residues and again with a clean wood stick to ensure that no residues remain. The interior surface of the holes get clean, shiny, smooth. And the pivots get happy.
(And no, this method does not wear the holes; maybe a few microns, nothing to worry about.)
Chris, I mentioned that I soaked the plate in a solvent for removing the old lacquer. The solvent does not affect the brass anyway, so it’s safe use. The link you provided is interesting! As I suspected the cleaning solution is a bit complex. “Oleic acid is a weak acid like acetic acid” – and what I used was acetic acid (vinegar). “If you wanted to polish the brass plates despite the removal of metal atoms you could buy household ammonia from your supermarket. It contains about 5% aqueous ammonia, a weak alkaline, and very effective surfactants.” – Well, I could not find anything similar to ‘household ammonia’ here in brazilian supermarkets. All I can find only in pharmacies is a more concentrated ammonia with nothing else added except water. (Don’t remember it is 20% or 30% solution.) This does not work for brass polishing!
