Topic: Cleaning household paint spots off iridised glass

[Anne]

Bernard, the dictionary must have emusion in it for it not to be picked up.

[Paul S.]

quote from Julie  ........."I've received a few vases from ebay sellers with paint drops on them. I use a razor scraper to remove them - never had any damage". -  but did these pieces have an iridised finish?

[ju1i3]

No they didn't but does it matter? The blade didn't scratch the glass.

[glassobsessed]

Iridescent finishes these days are usually the result of fuming with stannous chloride which results in an extremely thin coating on the outside of the vessel. Any scratch tends to stand out like a sore thumb....

John

[Paul S.]

I think this was my original worry Julie  -  when commenting that I wouldn't use a blade to remove the paint by scraping with a steel blade.     Glass, generally, has a hardness of something like 5.5 on the Mohs scale  -  which is way out harder than the thin surface coating of most iridised finishes.    Whilst it is quite harmless, usually, to use steel on ordinary glass provided actions are sensible, I still think that there is a high risk of damage if a Stanley blade is used on a Carnival type finish.    But at the end of the day, if people have used a blade of certain finishes without disaster then, with care, I guess they have learned to be successful.    Just a personal approach I suppose.      Moral of the story..........always cover your glass before painting the house......or alternatively, put it into a cabinet to start with

[ahremck]

I find that Eucalyptus oil is very good for cleaning off all sorts - particularly good for sticky label residue.  It seems to be very gentle on most things and I suspect it will work really well.

Ross

[Frank]

Hot iridised finishes are quite hard and emulsion or acrylic paints are unlikely to bond to the finish, not sure about solvent based paints though.
Cold applied iridescent finishes are not bonded to the glass and can flake even with normal handling and also due to airborne pollutants.

Professional restorers of paintings do have to face the challenge of removing paint from fragile surfaces and they do this using good quality scalpels and powerful magnification slicing the paint be removed in the tiniest chips to minimise mechanical stress. They will also use solvents where possible.

This approach should make it possible to restore the most fragile surface and I would try and use that if I felt there was any risk, first testing durability of the iridising under the base or other out of site position. Scraping on an iridised surface will always have a risk so better to work as slowly as possible. A final option would be to repair not restore, by simply colouring the spots to blend in with the surface - suitable paints exist in the better art shops.

[angel2]

 :angel:

I'm no help as far as cleaning paint off a surface like that, I'm afraid. On ordinary glass it's true that you can be fairly ruthless with due care. Just wanted to say, sooooooooooo much 'preloved' (not very loved, I'd say) glass is spotted with paint! Lazy, lazy uncaring messy painters! Always white paint.  Move things, cover them up!         Best of luck with finding a working solution.    :X:

angel2

[glassobsessed]

I bought a vase today and it was filthy dirty (otherwise known as minging in this neck of the woods). Anyway, when I started to clean it I noticed a blob of something stuck to the bottom and small splashes of this same material on the outside. It looks like cement and not grout or tile adhesive or something that may be easier to soak off. The little splashes on the outside came away easily enough but poking the blob on the inside was getting me nowhere (water had not softened it) and I did not want to risk smashing it. To clean cement of brick requires acid so I soaked my blob in vinegar for five minutes and that worked a treat.
I am feeling twice as smug as usual now. :smg:

John

[Paul S.]

I make no bones about not lifting the following from Wiki..................."Acetic acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH3COOH.   It is a colourless liquid that when undiluted is also called glacial acetic acid. Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar (apart from water), and has a distinctive sour taste and pungent smell. Although it is classified as a weak acid, concentrated acetic acid is corrosive, and attacks the skin".

So John has a vase that now reeks of vinegar :24: :24:    -     but sounds like a useful agent for removing our spots of whatever.