| Use make-up brushes to dust delicate objects. |
|
| Coin collectors never clean coins, however, if
you must, wash in warm soapy water and dry with soft dry cloth |
|
| Use a chrome cleaner to clean Bakelite objects. |
|
| To remove general grime from old prints, take the
dough from some fresh bread and roll gently over the surface of the print. The dust
and grime will soak into the bread. |
|
| To clean velour, put a few drops of washing up
liquid into a bucket of water. Soak a piece of muslin in the water and ring out
until almost dry. Rub backwards and forwards over the velour. |
|
| To disguise cigarette burns on
furniture, scrape
blackened area off with sharp knife blade. Fill indentation with car filler,
smooth off until level. Take an artists brush and powder paint of a similar colour
to the wood and paint in a knot to match others in the wood. |
|
| To find out if pearls are real or synthetic, rub
on teeth - if they feel gritty they are real, if smooth they are glass. |
|
| To find out if amber is genuine or plastic - heat
a needle in a flame and prick one of the beads. If it smells of plastic it is!
Amber smells pleasant. |
|
| To get grime off wooden furniture before
polishing use metal polish rubbed in the same direction as the wood grain. Finish
off with wax polish. |
|
| Brass and copper objects can be cleaned by
pouring over "brown" sauce (such as Daddys or O.K.), leave overnight and then
rinse off. |
|
| To remove an oil stain on wooden furniture, mix
some methylated spirits and talcum powder into a paste. Spread about 1/8" thick
over oily patch - leave to dry and then scrape paste off. The oil should have gone. |
|
| Revitalise cast iron objects by rubbing on olive
oil. |
|
| To remove old, rusted in screws. Clean
around screw head edges, heat screw head with a hot air gun, then turn screw a little
TIGHTER, before undoing. |
|
| When buying antique furniture look inside drawers
for signs of extra holes where original handles and locks may have been replaced. |
|
| Age marks on porcelain can be removed by soaking
overnight in baby bottle sterilizing liquid. |
|
| To check if jet is real or fake, rub it against
the bottom of a piece of unglazed pottery. If it leaves a brown mark it is genuine
jet. |
|
| To clean gilding, take some egg whites to which a
few drops of bleach have been added. Brush into gilding with a soft brush. Dry
with hairdryer. Use old toothbrush to brush off the residue. |
|
| Cover scratches in wooden furniture by rubbing
with a walnut kernel. |
|
| To remove dents in wood, dampen a piece of
flannelette sheet, place over dent. Take a domestic iron and press hard over damp
cloth. |
