Some cleaners are just best avoided...
Blood: Mrs Beeton recommends purified bullocks blood for removing grease spots.
Fire is also used as an occasional specialist cleaner, but not recomended for general household use. Gas burners are sometimes used to clear paths of weeds.
Glo-fuel for model aircraft: various different formulae exist, containing methanol, oils, solvents such as ether, etc. Glo-fuel is highly volatile, highly flammable, explosive, very toxic, narcotic, contains ether which is a general anaesthetic from the Victorian era, and the fumes can be fatal. A powerful solvent, but the negative outcomes may somewhat outweigh the benefits.
Mercury: Used in cleaning powders for silver in Victorian times. Mercury vapour is toxic, mercury is toxic to eat, and the mercury makes the silver weak and brittle. Not an ideal cleaner.
Saliva: While not one of the favourite household cleaners, its fairly effective, and is used in some households. Contains enzymes.
Turd: yes, recommended for cleaning by.... Mrs Beeton again. To clean the char off scorched linen, she recommends: 1/2 pint of vinegar, 2 oz. of fuller=92s-earth, 1 oz. of dried fowls=92 dung, 1/2 oz. of soap, and the juice of 2 large onions. Thank god for the onions.
Urine: In Tudor times clothes were boiled in urine and wood ash on wash day. Lovely. The 2 react to make a form of soap, and both are cleaners in their own right to some extent. It need hardly be said that one should not skimp on rinsing.
Hydrofluoric acid: removes most types of dirt. Unfortunately it also removes whatever the dirt is on, hands, finger bones, pretty well everything. It is also difficult to store, since it attacks and eats even the most unreactive of storage materials. Store in glass coated in liquid paraffin, preferably anywhere but here.
Do you know any other bad cleaning ideas?
NT