VII
REMEDYING SPOTS, STAINS, AND TARNISH
Grease Spots in Wood: Scour unpainted wood with clean sand after pouring strong lye upon the grease spot. If it is very obstinate, cover with a paste of prepared chalk, corn starch, and whiting wet with ammonia, let stand two days, and scour. Grease stays on varnished surfaces; wash it off with warm borax soapsuds and follow, after wiping dry, by a hard rubbing with alcohol and turpentine mixed. Machine oil must be taken out with either gasolene or alcohol, then scoured with cold suds—heat sets it.
Dust greasy walls thickly with powdered chalk or whiting, brush off after a day, and repeat. For a small but staring spot lay chalk thickly between net, hold it flat against the spot, with a very hot iron over it. Commonly this will take up the grease. Chalk or whiting wet with alcohol to a thin paste and left to dry on grease spots, then gently brushed off, will remove grease. But with paper badly spotted it is best to take it off and put on a fresh length.
Machine oil on garments old or new must be taken out with gasolene, else washed in white soap and cold water. If spots are black as well as greasy, lay them face down upon a thick cloth and pour alcohol or gasolene through, not rubbing the spot proper, but sawing it back and forth against the cloth underneath—thus the black is not imbedded in the fabric. Lay thin things spotted face down and dab hard repeatedly with a swab of cotton tied in net and wet with gasolene. Move the spots to clean surfaces, and swab till clean. Lay silk and gauze, especially delicately colored ones, over a layer of calcined magnesia mixed with corn starch, and pour through either grain alcohol or chloroform. Wet very lightly a ring around the spot of unspotted fabric and work from it inward to the spot. This to save annoying circles.
Take grease out of woolens with a flood of gasolene, changing it as it grows dirty. If caked dirt shows afterward, wash with naphtha soap, applying lather to the spot, holding a very hot iron a little way from it for a minute, then washing off with hot water. Instead of the iron you may hold the spot to the spout of a boiling kettle, letting the steam penetrate it. Greasy coat collars and heavy garments blotched with spilled food demand washing in suds besides the washing in gasolene.
For a greasy carpet mix whiting and cornmeal, make hot, sift on thickly, cover with gasolene, and rub hard and quickly until the gasolene evaporates, then sweep very clean and wipe with a damp cloth. If gasolene involves fire risks, leave the powder standing for several days, sweep off, and repeat if the grease is not all gone.
Axle-grease spots or any other partly resinous must be softened with oil, then taken out with gasolene or turpentine. Washing, even boiling, sets them. It is the same with linseed-oil spots. Take them out with turpentine followed by gasolene.
Road Stains, whether from mud, asphalt, tar, oil dirt, or oil proper, are as easy to get as they are hard to get rid of. Let mud cakes and flakes severely alone until dry—wiping while wet smears them and gives a firmer hold on the fabric underneath. A soft semi-fluid mud, if it can be dipped almost instantly in clear water, laved without touching, then have water poured through from the back, will be apt not to leave a mark—so wash whenever such washing is possible. Where it is impossible, hold the stained surface mud side down until dry, then rub and brush well before attempting to get rid of the mark. Stiff mud left to dry undisturbed will come away leaving but a faint mark. If it is clay mud, pour boiling water through it from the wrong side in a steady stream for at least a minute. Wet as small a space as possible, stretch it smooth, let dry, brush or rub with coarse velvet, cover with a cream of French chalk, starch, and alcohol, let dry, and brush off; commonly the stain goes with it. This for silk or wool. Wash fabrics need only to be well laundered after the boiling-water treatment.
Grimy mud needs to be well wet with kerosene, let stand an hour, then cleaned with either alcohol or gasolene. Gasolene or benzine will also take out spots of tar and asphalt, but they come away quicker and cleaner if first wet with turpentine, then greased on both sides with soft lard, and let stand a while. Dip in the gasolene, soiled side out, and change the gasolene as soon as it looks dark. Bold big stains may demand three changes. After the stain is out spread the fabric smooth and wipe all round the gasolened space with a cloth dipped in more gasolene to prevent circles. Soften oil marks or those from oily dirt by wetting thoroughly with kerosene, washing out later in gasolene as directed for tar. Very fine things can be cleaned with ether or alcohol instead of gasolene, pouring through the spot and rubbing with a wisp of cotton.