While camping with my family over the summer I bought this old copper boiler from an antiques store. It was sitting outside in a corner of the shop’s front porch covered in cobwebs and rusty grime. With a little elbow grease I could see flowers displayed in the tub or maybe I would use it as a novelty storage bin I thought. Since it was left out to rust and the price tag was reasonable, I purchased it with hopes of gussying it up and giving it a new life.
There were several dents on each side and the lid was crusty.
When I returned to the campground I searched online for how to clean copper and read that several people had success with lemon and salt. I guess that’s how people have been cleaning copper for ages. I just so happened to have lemons in the refrigerator and found a container of Morton’s salt under the cabinet — so guess what I did? Yep! I couldn’t slice the lemon quick enough. The moment the lemon and salt touched the copper the old, dark tarnish started dissolving. Eeek! I was so excited I kept going until all the copper shined through.
At first the boiler was bright pink but after a few days it turned more coppery and still darkens every day. I scrubbed the rust from the tin lid with steel wool the best I could but it didn’t come off completely, it’s just smoother and less crusty than before. My husband tapped out the dents with a small hammer for me.
I may go over it one more time with lemon and salt, but it’s a big improvement from the way it looked before.
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Modern Hen home 
Wow… that’s gorgeous!
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Thank you! I will try to post more photos with the boiler soon.
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That turned out beautiful!!
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Thank you Vickie! It was fun to see the difference. I appreciate your reading and commenting!
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My Mom hers to boil fruit jars in order to sterilize them for canning fruits and vegetables. I helped her do this, but was too young to care much about that ugly old copper boiler! Since then I’ve looked at the “dirty old” boiler for several years before trying to “clean it up”. Mine came out that “pink” color as well. Am going to wait patiently for it to “mellow”. When I checked your posting I was hoping to find out if there was a sealant to brush on it when it “mellowed” to my “mental specification” — and thus keeping it that color. (Mine isn’t perfect either — but surely looks much better than it did!
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I have one exactly like that, lid and all!! I keep it on the front porch with scented pine cones in it however, I wanted to move it outside and plant something in it…worried about it rusting and getting holes in it…I’m in Florida. Just wondering if you have any tips for preventing that from happening?
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Need some decorating ideas for the copper boiler
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Thanks for sharing! I have on that needs tp be polished.
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