Slate hearth

[Confused]

We have a black slate hearth about four/five years old and it is difficult to keep clean. Anyone know of suitable cleaning materials that will remove cup/class stains etc. Thanks in anticipation

[Tom]

My Granny used to clean her slate front door step with milk.She lived in Blaenau Ffestiniog so I suppose she must have known something about slate. Tom

[Sloper]

We had a slate hearth may years ago. We just wiped it clean with a wet cloth, then applied Zebo Black Lead, which was a paste that came in a yellow and black tube. It blackens the slate and polishes to a shine. I'm not sure you can guy it now though. You could probably use a grate polish though?

[Andy Dingley]

Even Tesco still carry it. Not hard to find at all.

Zebo is a lousy polish. It's intended for hot fireplaces, which is the primary requirement for it. It's made from graphite and oil, no wax component to it, so it doesn't polish up worth a damn. If you want a black wax polish that generally works far better but won't take any heat, then Liberon's black patina wax is better. This is wax, carbon black and (I think) some silica.

Slate is highly variable and the best polish does vary a little between where the slate is from and how it was cut or polished. For a polished slate, the best polish is Godard's marble polish - a very hard polish with a high carnauba content. For unpolished flat slate, I use Liberon's Black Bison furniture finishing wax polish in neutral colour. Apply either with a brush, not a cloth, and buff well. For cleaved slate, use an oil or wax emulsion finish applied very lightly

- a paste wax will build up in the crevices and leave white residues.

[Sloper]

I could have sworn my old dad used to use Zebo on our hearth. It used to look fine. Perhaps I'm mistaken.

[Andy Dingley]

It works fine on cleft slate - the surface is rough enough that you'll never get a real polish on it. But if you have a polished stone insert in a cast iron mantel, then getting Zebo on the stone is a hell of a job to get off afterwards.