try a Scotch-Brite® Heavy Duty Scour Pad # 223 ( green in color) which can usually be found at lowes.

these pads are very aggressive.

your hinges will more than likely have a clear protective coating on them, once your pads cuts through this coating I believe you'll like the results

Thanks for the Scotch Brite idea. Since my post here, my DH heated the hinges with a torch until they were red, then when they cooled down, they were gray matte color. I believe that the heat took off the protective coating as well as the nickel plating and just left the original steel hinge. Some of the hinges had blue or rainbow areas around the edges, so he heated them up again, thinking that maybe all the finish wasn't off in those areas. I haven't seen them after the second heating, but he says the rainbow look is blue now.

That led to another problem though...evidently they had brass pins in the hinge, and three of them melted. So...he had to drill out the brass and is now looking for some tiny rods to weld back on the hinge (at least I think that's what he said :)

So...in light of all this, do you thing I can still brush them with the green pad for the finish? Should I now spray them with the acrylic matte coating to keep them from rusting since the other coating has been heated away?
Thanks so much for your help.
Terry

LOL I think you need to start again with new hinges, by the time you finish messing around with them. The heat treatment may have hardened them and made them brittle. You could practice on these anyway.

Are you sure they're not available (or another brand) in that finish? You could try going to the manufacturer's website and seeing what finishes are listed.

Alternately, get new hinges, disassemble them, and I guess strip them with a stripper appropriate for the varnish, then either use the green scotchbrite (I don't know if it will be hard enough for the job) or use sandpaper, probably emery paper that's made for metal work (you can usually find a roll of it in the plumbing section), for most brushed finishes, you will want to sand in one direction only. You could also try a wire brush.

When you have the finish the way you want it, then overcoat it, but most of those protective finishes are more glossy than matte. A spray lacquer suitable for protecting brass would be ideal.

Hi, thanks for posting ideas for us about the hinges. I'm with you pjb about just starting over, but I also like a challenge! I am, after all, called the queen of the paintbrush by many friends. My motto is "Of course it can be changed."

Here is what we ended up with after DH heated the hinges to red hot twice, fixed a few of them by drilling out the brass and replacing it. Then, I buffed them with the scotch brite, coated with clear matte acrylic spray and added a little silver rub-n-buff to the detail areas. Not exactly what I originally wanted, but I really like the way they turned out.
Tery

They look good! Were you trying to match originals, or just going for a look? If so, I think they turned out well.