Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Fen on August 07, 2011, 09:58:16 AM
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I bought this lustre today for 50p at a boot sale and I was thrilled to find out when I got home that it has a lovely uranium glass glow to boot (no pun intended). I'm a bit dispmayed now, an hour later and I've tried washing it but the base is covered in dirt inside and I can't get at it. Any ideas appreciated. I will get some drops and put it in my window - anyone elses childhood influenced by Pollyana's Mrs Snow?
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An overnight soak with soda crystals can work well, alternatively if you have any stain remover that you add to your cloths wash (the 'oxy' action type) also soaked overnight can work wonders.
You can also sometimes buy long bendy bottle type brushes, these are good for getting around corners.
John
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Thank you. Off to the laundry room now.
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Dried rice shaken with a bit of water sometimes helps too.
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My pet gentler method is to get a lump of cotton wool, dampen it, and add some toothpaste. Then put it in the vase and swirl the vase so the cotton wool slides - and you achieve a gentle grinding action with the toothpaste. I would soak the vase with washing soda or bicarb soda for 24 hours before using the cotton wool.
To get the wool out - if it proves dificult simply add lots of water, swish the woll abit so it becomes dispeersed and then tip upside down rqapidly into the sink. The cotton wool usually comes out as a messy blob.
Ross
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Dishwasher tablet followed by chlorine bleach and a gentle scrub with a bottle brush wouldbe my course of action.
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I wouldn't put soda crystals or washing soda anywhere near glass - it's sodium hydroxide - which will dissolve glass and make it nasty and cloudy.
My first course of action is always a soak in a bit of biological washing liquid and water - it will get shot of any organic muck - easily loosened with your dried rice or magic balls (little copper ball bearings).
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I wouldn't put soda crystals or washing soda anywhere near glass - it's sodium hydroxide -
No, it's sodium carbonate and probably won't react with the glass. It can remove lime and is used as a descaling agent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_carbonate
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:thud:
Well harumph, if folk would just use the proper names for chemicals there would be no confusion! (where's the "tearing my hair out" emoticon????)
I was thinking of the drain unblocking stuff, or oven cleaner - often known as washing soda.... which IS sodium hydroxide.
We don't need or use water softeners up here. :sc: We don't have scaly water.
Anybody think this bit of glass might glow brightly green under uv?
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An over night soak and then rice has never let me down yet, although the copper balls, I have been told, are even more effective.
David :sc:
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:thud:
Anybody think this bit of glass might glow brightly green under uv?
Sue...there's an inset photo of it glowing brightly with the other photos at the top. :ooh: :kissy:
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:pb: :wsh:
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You don't clean it ............... You give it to a Friend, so they can try to clean it :24: ;D Nice Piece!! :mrgreen:
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Ex-Science teacher time, Sue.
Sodium Hydroxide is Caustic Soda - one of the most common strong alkiline chemicals. Its use lies in breaking down fats that have accumulated in drains and clothing. As a chemical it rates in the "Brutal" category and must be treated with extreme care.
Washing Soda is Sodium Carbonate. It is simply Sodium Hydroxide with the right amount of Carbon Dioxide combined with it. It too is a strong alkili because dissolving in water effectively reverses the combining action and Sodium Hyroxide is realeased and so is Carbon Dioxide(but that tends to combine with water and not bubble off).. Care should be taken as it rips the oils from the hands and the skin becomes very dry.
Add more Carbon Dioxide to Sodium Carbonate and you achieve Sodium Bi-Carbonate an altogether much milder substance. In gfact you blodd flows around in an approximately 3% solution of the stuff. Still attacks fats & oils - feels soapy still.
I would assume that all three can attack glass - but to do that it requires time for the thing to act. Provided you only use it and then clean it out fairly smartly I can't imagine substantial damage. The effect in dishwaashing detergent comes from the Sodium Carbonate(for oils & fats) combined with high temperature which speeds up the chemical action.
Ross
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Thanks, Ross :-*
- the one thing I couldn't get to grips with at uni was the acid-base balance in physiology - coming from a lab background, and not doing 1st year, I didn't know the difference between a strong acid and a weak one - I though strong acid was concentrated acid :pb: - as in big winchesters locked in steel cabinets :24: - and the course lecturer didn't make it clear that the lungs and kidneys were working together in a system - it was all just presented as disconnected blobs of info which didn't add up.
But I know alkali is bad for glass. And that Sodium bicarbonate is amazing stuff, with tons of household uses as well as the job it does in the bod. And breadmaking. (Irish OH - requires soda bread.). And clothes, 'fridge and freezer de-stinking.
Also, I cup of sodium bicarbonate, plus 1 cup of salt (sodium chloride), followed by a kettlefull of boiling water will unblock drains/plugholes. :thup: (see??.... drain cleaning :ooh: )
(but still, if folk would just use the proper chemical name, I wouldn't get (so) confused.
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I've become a convert to a combination of 'Magic Balls' and metal polish (then shaking for a while) - saves shoving sharp metal ends of brush cleaners into difficult corners. Adding aluminium oxide/cerium oxide to the mix is worth trying, depending on the type of glass. Some very old drinking glasses can be made worse by rubbing with nylon or very hard bristles (soda glass pieces possibly).
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Aside... Is it a vase or a pineapple centerpiece aka porte-ananas?
google (http://www.google.de/search?q=porte+ananas&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&client=firefox-a&channel=np&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=de&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=681#um=1&hl=de&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:de%3Aofficial&channel=np&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=porte-ananas+ancien&pbx=1&oq=porte-ananas+ancien&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=14180l15790l2l16135l7l7l0l6l0l0l137l137l0.1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=fd5691affb201b34&biw=1280&bih=681)
BTW Fen, here´s a very similar piece with hanging crystal drops... :)
here (http://www.le-grenier.fr/objets-d-art/)
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Hi folks,
Going to go low tech now.
Ive always found a denture cleaning tablet left in water overnight works wonders and leaves the item minty fresh !!!
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..........uhmmmm, well you may clear a little superficial dirt that way, but lime scale and accummulative staining I doubt. :)
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Hello all and thanks for the suggestions. I have tried bicarbonate of soda with rice and then with pearl barley (thinking that being bigger it might have more impact than the rice). I then tried a dishwashing tablet that I'd dissolved in warm water and then I tried my oxy action tablet for the washing. It's better but still has this residue that I can't get at and scrub because the neck of the glass is so narrow. It's a lustre, by the way, there are little holes around the base of the top bulb where the metal pins that hold the chandelier type glass drops will eventually hang from. I'm eyeing stronger stuff in my bathroom cabinet now - if something says 5% chlorine based bleaching agents, should I steer clear? You can sense the desparation.
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If sodium bicarbonate fails, I have a go with vinegar - which should dissolve limescale.
I can't see bleach doing much unless it's against organic muck - which you should have dealt with already.
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Whatever you do isn't going to "hurt" because if it goes white it's not going to show on the outside, unlike the muck. More patience and soaking and swirling might do it.