I have a large Cornish stone fireplace and my wife in her wisdom decided to clean it with Vim or some such scourer and now the stone has lost its look and is now very drab. I won't draw any similarities with the wife at this point. :-) What can I use or do to restore the colour and lustre? To the fireplace not the wife. TIA Jim
What's "Cornish stone" and what was the original finish ?
Sorry, forgot it might be a bit vague for a description...I believe its a form of limestone. It's a tan brown and as far I could see there wasn't any varnish/glaze over it and the surface is rough and not a polish finish. The surface now looks dusty and very dull.
Limestone! Is it actually *in* Cornwall, or somewhere else? If it's in Cornwall, and is made from stone from Cornwall, it'll be either slate or granite. Cornish granite is a whitish rock with black speckles in it. Slate could be most any sort of look, but your fire sounds like "rustic slate". Do the individual stones exhibit any sort of "grain", or layering? Is it uniform tan, or are there green bits?
Yup... a) posting under quoted text is generally more acceptable in uk.d-i-y & :. "the thing to do; and b) Speak to Graham Pearse of Trebarwith Stoneworks on 01840 214000 to explain the situation and see what he's got to say about it! There are various things you could do, but it would be worthwhile phoning up.
If it's slate, then a coat of wax polish is the best. You should get a lovely result for just a little effort.
You need the right polish - ideally a stone polish rather than a wood polish. This is a hard but not too shiny wax polish, with maybe 15% carnauba wax in it. Mary can tell you the rest, or I've got a few recipes here:
Don't use a "liquid wax" They tend to give dark splotches on even slightly porous stone. Mr Sheen is definitely the wrong thing.
Apply it with a nylon bristled "wire" brush. Work hard, along the grain of the stone. A plastic wire brush in an electric drill can save a lot of effort.
You might want to work it with a soft (stainless steel) wire brush dry first, in case there's any Vim dust left behind. Some people use a bronze brush, but these can sometimes cause "bronzing" on darker slates.
If you've had problems with soot stains from an open fireplace, then you might want to apply a sealer before the wax. Those sold for sealing stone floors are good. However these don't leave such a natural stone look as wax alone.
Many thanks to both of you for your help on the stonework and the netiquette of news groups. I'll be hard at work this weekend trying to restore the stonework. As I'm an ex beekeeper and seller of candles I have some of the polish ingredients at hand. Great.
Cheers :-)
Hi Jim. See if this link helps to explain a bit better....
The attraction of Cornish "Rustic" is a surface film, . You should be careful not to damage it, so I wouldn't go at it with a wire brush. Did Trebarwith Stoneworks help?
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