Maintaining
your nameplate is relatively simple.
First and foremost, keep all corrosives off your nameplates. Corrosives include,
but are not limited to sweat, saliva, salt, insecticides, soap, dirt, and
leather cleaners/conditioners. Never use an abrasive cleaner or polish on a
lacquered brass surface. These include household cleaners like Comet and metal
polishes like Brasso.
After you have cleaned and conditioned your leather, and wiped residue off your
plates, what do you do? You wipe off your brass plates with either dish soap or
car wash, then you wax it. Use non-abrasive automotive wax, the same type you
use on your car. It doesn’t matter what type you use, but the better wax you
get, the better it works. Apply it every time you clean your leather, or at
least four times a year.
Most of all, keep your plates dry. Nothing will destroy a lacquered brass
finish like any type of liquid left standing on the surface, including water.
When you receive your nameplates, they are not waxed. That should be one of the
first things you do.