Wow! Someone has spent some time getting that brass all polished up. No wonder you want people to keep their mitts off them! They look great.
Yes, we practically lived with a Windex bottle and paper towel in hand at the jewelry stores I worked at. We tried to wait till people left before wiping up after them so as not to seem rude, but sometimes it was tempting to spray them with the Windex. LOL!
LOL Yeah, it’s some work to polish the entire barrel. When the owner was doing Civil War re-enactments, they’d get dirty. He had a couple of teen guys who did the cleaning.
The cannon’s were a little dirty when he first took them to the museum and he sent one of the guys there to clean them the next weekend. He was there for a few hours and he worked non-stop.
I only have to clean the prints off, fortunately.
I wasn’t tempted to spray people with Windex. The temptation I had/have to fight is smacking their hands like you would a toddler. “NO!!” LOL