d-i-y sharpen scissors and aluminium foil

[john brook]

The other day on the television was a program about old money saving tips. So instead of buying all these new chemical type cleaners, you use traditional methods. For instance to clean teapots and strainers etc, soak in bicarbonate of soda mixed with white vinegar.

One thing that puzzled me and i have heard this before, is that they said to sharpen scissors; keep cutting into a number of cooking aluminium foil sheets, folded up on each other.

So essentially you are cutting into layers of aluminium. Can anyone think how this would sharpen scissors? My immediate reaction is you are just going make the scissors blunter quicker.

[geoff]

In message , john brook writes

The same program that saves throwing bread away by heating up the oven and turning it into croutons

[Tabby]

aluminium hardness: 2.75 mohs, shear modulus 26 gpa So I cant see the ali affecting the steel scissors at all. Perhaps it might partially fill nicks in the blade, but even if it did, its so soft it wouldnt improve the blade for long.

Reacting bicarb with vinegar to neutralise both: what use is sodium acetate?

Cutting a bedsheet and re-sewing it - once standard practice, but most sheets bobble badly long before they wear through, and no info was given about picking good ones, and of course there are cheaper quicker ways to get sheets anyway now.

Make do & mend is a nice idea, but the quality of information hasn't impressed me that much.

NT

[Andy Dingley]

Mohs don't come in quarter units.

Quite an important one actually. Tea strainers these days are made of stainless steel. However old kitchen implements were often brass or copper. _Copper_ acetate, or verdigris, is toxic. You can make verdigris by soaking copper in vinegar. As was known in Victorian household manuals, using vinegar in combination with bicarb does indeed reduce its effectiveness, but it also avoids the risk of poisoning the scullery maid.

[Ian Jackson]

I recall my mother saying that the best way to sharpen scissors was to cut with them. But what to cut (if anything), I can't remember.

When you think of how the blades of scissors, garden shears and similar tools work, they should be essentially self-sharpening.

>

[dennis]

The usual way to sharpen scissors if you don't have the proper tool is to "cut" a milk bottle.

[Frank Erskine]

Emery or sandpaper.

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Frank Erskine writes

Presumably very, very fine?

[Gib Bogle]

What does it do to the scale?

[Another John]

I remember hearing that too, in the 60s (when we had milk bottles -- big fat buggers.

When I eventually tried it, I couldn't really make the scissors fit the bottle except round the neck rim. I didn't notice any difference to the scissors.

These days, I put it down to being a remedy for poor steel used in economically priced scissors in the Old Days. You can buy fantastic sharp scissors down the Pound Shop these days.

John

[Gib Bogle]

It may be "usual", but does it work?

[dennis]

Not with hardened blades it doesn't.

[Andy Dingley]

Sod all. Vinegar won't shift scale anyway, you need formic or sulphamic acid for that. However here we're talking about tea staining, not a calcareous scale, and buffered vinegar still seems to deal with that OK.

No, I don't understand the chemistry either. However I warn you that I know an obsessive-compulsive who will, and if you want clarification, you'll get clarification and I'll make you read it. All of it.

[dennis]

I de-scale the kettle with citric acid. Its cheap from a brew shop and is food safe.

[Gib Bogle]

No no, anything but that, please, anything ...

[stuart noble]

I just descaled the nylon strainer in my kettle with vinegar. A five minute soak was all it took. I use sulphamic for the shower head but citric works just as well IME

[Andy Dingley]

Agreed - Not quite so effective, but it makes up for that in cheapness and availability.

I'd point out though that vinegar is "food safe" too, but not safe after reaction with metals. I doubt copper citrate (of which I know nothing) would be too healthy.

[Tabby]

almost any acid works on limescale. Its the other materials present that determine which is best, and which to avoid. Citric seems unnecessarily expensive.

NT

[stuart noble]

But available everywhere in small amounts. 69p per 150 gms last time I looked. Enough to do a wc bowl

[Tabby]

Where are you paying that? I ought to look around, but its something i rarely buy.

NT