Scouring, Cleaning, and Polishing Materials

Many different powders and pastes are used in house furnishings for cleaning and polishing metals and other substances.

Metals tarnish because they are acted upon by both air and water. Abrasion, or rubbing, with a material harder than the tarnish itself, will remove it. The essentials of any good polishing powder therefore are:

1. That it be harder than the layer of corroded or tarnished matter.

2. That the particles be so fine that they will not scratch the metal.

The cleaning powders best adapted to different metals areas follows, for:

Iron and wood - white sand

Steel knives - Bath or Bristol brick

Copper, brass, and tin - tripoli, or rottenstone

Silver, aluminum, and tin - whiting

White sand is the polishing material in most scouring soaps and powders. It is a very cheap and pure sand made by crushing quartz, sandstone, or other rock to fine powder. It is also made into solid scouring bricks, known as Bath or Bristol bricks. It should not be used on gold or silver, as it is too coarse.

Tripoli, rottenstone, electro-silicon, and diatomaceous earth are various names for an earth made up of the widely distributed glassy skeletons of microscopic plants, which are nearly as hard as sand, and yet are so fine grained that they do not scratch metals.

Whiting is finely powdered English chalk. The chalk is sifted through muslin and floated in water; the heavy particles sink, and the fine part which floats is used for the whiting. This is the basis of nearly all silver polishes. It can be used mixed with ammonia. When mixed with oil and an acid it forms a paste or liquid, which is excellent for cleaning brass and copper, but should not be used on silver.

Sand soap is a mixture of fine clay, alkali, and fat.

Stove blacking is graphite (a form of carbon) mixed with molasses or other sticky substances.

Electrical silver cleaners are special devices for cleaning silver, consisting of an aluminum plate which is put into boiling water in which baking soda or salt are dissolved. The chemical reaction which takes place reduces the tarnish to a pure metallic silver. Experiments have shown that cleaning by rubbing with an abrasive material removes 25 times as much silver as the electrolytic method. This electrical method of cleaning silver does not leave the silver with a high polish, and if this is desired it may be secured by rubbing. The method is suitable for both sterling and plated silver.

Silver-plated ware should not be scoured or rubbed hard, as the plating is softer than ordinary sterling silver and wears away more easily.

If silverware is lacquered no abrasive substance should be used in cleaning it, as this will wear away the lacquer and expose the silver.

Steel wool is used for polishing metals in the same way as sand or emery. It consists of sharp-edged threads of steel which curl up like wool or excelsior. It should not be used on soft metals, as it will scratch them.

Furniture polishes have various oils as a base; The formulas are usually kept secret by the manufacturers.