Cleaning stainless steel

I think you can get stainless steel cleaner, but i've not used that in a while. Baby oil works quite well, but i'm not sure if it's OK on bits that might get hot.

HTH

microfibre 'e-cloth'. John Lewis and Lakeland sell them - really good for windows too.

Anything that shifts oily grease will do it. You're never going to keep it clean because a cooker hood always has enough oil film on it from cooking to show prints.

If it's filthy, then Barkeeper's Friend will shift it. It's based on oxalic acid and a good hardware shop, kitchen shop or even supermarket will have it.

If it's stained or burned, then a Garryflex block (rubber eraser with abrasive grit in it) will re-finish stainless to a good brushed or mirror finish. You'll need to passivate it afterwards with citric acid (easy, Google) or else the bare stainless will stain quickly.

Cleaning it is one thing. Proprietary cleaners will take off finger marks, especially if followed up with paper towel. Any shiny surface will show up fingerprints to some degree or another. Polishing it (which will make any prints more evident) can be done with *very* fine abrasives, 12,000 gauge or so.

Oxalic acid only really applies to rust stains as it tends to take out the hydrated oxides of iron. The surface of SS is actually chromium oxide in some sort of weird matrix which keeps the oxygen away from the ferrous component. If you manage to set up an electrochemical cell, SS will corrode surprisingly badly. BTDTGTTS

John Schmitt

That problem is now well known on boats - it has led to a few total loss accidents though when keels have fallen off.

I cleaned a kitchen sink using a tube of chrome polish I found. The result was stunning. the kitchen sink was old but it polished to a showroom finish.

Bleach.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

My son uses WD40.

Isn't it wonderful I now have methods to clean Stainless Steel. I have passed on the list to my wife who asked me the question. She will make the decision. Thanks to all for your replies Blair

I'd leave the WD40 out of it, summat to do with the chemicals?

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

It seems to be the basis of decking cleaners (a new must-have for the makeover brigade). Quite what it does, and how, isn't immediately clear. I've never found it effective as a wood bleach.

Interesting experience buying citric acid from SavaCentre pharmacy. No comment till I asked for *two* lots of 100gms. "What are you using it for?". "To dissolve cocaine" "Naaah, you don't look like that sort of person" Shares a smile with her colleague and hands me the packages.

Autosol ? That's a polish with very hard abrasive in it, because it's intended for pure chrome, not necessarily stainless. It's works fine on many metals, but it's usually slower and certainly more expensive than it needs to be.

As John said, it's particularly good on iron oxides. Its only real use as a wood bleach is for removing metal stains, even blue iron stain on oak.

It's good on hardwood decking, but can be a bit harsh on resinous softwood (larch) decking. If you do use it on teak or brownwood kurtzii, then it's important to re-oil the finish afterwards.

Excellent. Not. Chlorides are excellent corrosive agents for most metals. While bleach is hypochlorite, it degenerates to the chloride both spontaneously and in contact with reducing agents. As it does this, the potential for an electrochemical cell exists. For machining SS, chlorinated cutting fluids are normally used to prevent the (almost instantaneous) formation of the very hard chromium oxide layer by instead forming the chloride. The chloride is soft and so the tool life is greatly prolonged.

John Schmitt

It will not as such bleach wood. However, oak (a common deck wood) stains a dark colour on exposure to iron salts, the tannins in the oak will react with them. Leave a piece of iron or steel on the deck and give it a bit of salt spray and you have a deeply rooted stain. Again the oxalic acid forms a metastable complex which is colourless. Being metastable, the colour will return in time and require a further application.

John Schmitt

Hmmm! my sink is still in its pristine condition from new 4 years ago, allways bleach it down after washing up also makes the taps sparkle as does the cutlery.

In the very long term your probably right, but hey i'm not interested with the boring science of it all.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

You must have really pi**ed your parents off.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Cillit bang works well here!