We have a Victorian cast iron bath which we bought refurbished about 20 years ago. It has some sort of, I guess, epoxy coating, but it was refurbished by a specialist company in their workshop and we were given the impression that this was a more robust coating than can be applied in situ.
However, the sheen has mostly worn off although the coating is still good otherwise. I've tried T-cut and it makes no difference - is there any mileage in trying to polish it? How?
Cheers
Is it really dull, or is it a combination of lime scale and inappropriate cleaning methods and only in selected places, like at the bottom near the plug hole and under the taps? If the latter a friend suggested Perspex polish, but the issue is of course, any kind of abrasive will remove coating, and one does not know how thick the glossy part actually is. Brian
It's fairly evenly dull all over except around the roll-top which is still nice and shiny, so I don't think it's cleaning. Citric acid won't touch it, so I don't think it's limescale. The fact that it's even suggests it's not abrasion from bodies.
I think it's from the water, and wonder if it might be perhaps a build up of silicates or similar. We have hard water which is softened, and a newish shower tray had some slight scale build up where water was pooling, and again that didn't respond to acid but would scrape off with a plectrum.
Cheers
It sounds as though the OP's water suffers from permanent hardness, i.e. calcium sulphate in the water, as opposed to calcium carbonate. Deposits of calcium sulphate do not dissolve in acid, so any build-up will not respond to vinegar or citric acid.
I have dissolved a large lump of set plaster of Paris (used for a botch repair of a bit of china, prior to doing a better repair) using strong EDTA solution. But that required soaking for several days in the solution. EDTA is available on e-bay
Ah yes, it could well be Calcium Sulfate, thanks. I just looked it up, and there's 320mg/l CaCO3 and 17mg/l SO4 in the water here.
I'll get some some EDTA and see what happens.
Cheers
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