The acid attacks the zinc first leaving the surface mostly copper. Almost any abrasive will remove the copper and get you back to brass color. Use a tooth brush to get into the corners. Getting back to an "Antique" brass color is more difficult. I tried an "Antiqing" solution one time and was less than impressed with the results. I "Antiqued" some Bronze switchplates by removing the manufacturers finish with scotchbrite. The heated the oven to 500 deg (that's as high as it would go) , placed the switchplates on the oven rack , turned the oven off and went to bed. The next morning I had antique switch plates. Looked a lot better than that black paint they put on bronze and call Antique. Don't know if this would work on brass or not. That lock looks like an old skeleton key lock my parents used to have on a house in Maine. They would go to the five and 10 cent store and buy a new key. The store had half a dozen different shapes and they would just pick out the one that looked like there's and it would work. The door was rarely locked so the key tended to get lost.

I think it looks great, the green scrubby probably removed some of the lacquer. I think it looks better if it's not all one uniform color anyway, so the darker rings look good. If it's solid brass and not plated, another option is taking ultra fine 0000 steal wool to the tarnished areas next time it starts to tarnish.

I looked into this last spring when I was shopping for a used chandelier. I haven't tried this, mind you, but here's what I read: polish the chandelier to remove the tarnish; it will restore the brass to a shiny state; let the brass tarnish over a period of several weeks to desired patina; then wax the chandelier to retard further tarnishing. I suppose you could lacquer it too, but I think lacquer would be tricky to apply well. Also, when you say "antique brass," do you mean the antique brass finish that's painted on or do you mean an old formerly shiny brass chandelier that's tarnished & dark?

I agree with others-the antique brass will not look like a fad if YOUR home is already filled with aged brass. You said "I see the antique brass much more." Do you mean you see it (in your mind's eye) in your home or that you see it in the design magazines/blogs? If the former, then I think you can just go with your gut and if the latter hopefully what we're all saying just serves to reassure you. RE: faucets. I'm not sure I'd do polished chrome, but I'm anal retentive about coordinating things. You didn't mention your appliances...if you have anything stainless, I think brushed/satin nickel or stainless faucet might relate nicely. If you don't mind the higher maintenance of those aged bronze finishes...I absolutely heart the Tuscan Brass faucet linked below. A local showroom showed this faucet with the extra raised deck union fittings-not sure if I have the right terminology-and I coveted in desperately. (Back when there was a prep sink in our plan, this was my faucet, along with the Waterstone Gantry faucet at the clean up sink. sigh.) But I have an unnatural attraction to sexy faucets. :) Actually, I was channel surfing at the height of my TKO last year and saw Kirstie Alley's kitchen (or set?) where I spotted the same Rohl faucet, froze the tv on tivo, and snapped a still photo to show my husband. Clearly, I'm sick. Here is a link that might be useful: Rohl Country Faucet in Tuscan Brass