(g) Morocco Leather.—Strain well over a board, and scour with stiff brush, using tepid water and soft-soap, made slightly acid with oxalic acid; when done, unstrain the leather, and dry in a cool place; do not saturate the leather, but keep the board inclined; when dry, rub a little oil lightly over the surface with a rag.
(h) Saddles.—If much soiled, wash the leather with a weak solution of oxalic acid and water, and, when dry, with the watery portion of beef blood. The latter can be preserved by adding a little carbolic acid, and keeping it in a bottle tightly corked.
(i) Brown saddles may be cleaned to look as well as new by the use of tepid water and crown soap; if the latter cannot be had, use pure Castile soap.
Marble, Stone, Plaster, &c.—Marble.—(a) Take finely powdered pumice and vinegar; wash the surface with the mixture, and leave it for several hours, then brush hard and wash clean. When dry, rub with whiting and washleather. (b) Equal parts caustic potash, quicklime, and soft-soap; make into a thick paste with water, and apply with a brush; leave for about a week, and apply again and again until the stain has disappeared. (c) 2 parts soda (carbonate), 1 of pumice, and 1 of finely powdered chalk. Mix into a fine paste with water. Rub this over the marble, and the stains will be removed; then wash with soap and water. (d) Wash thoroughly with soda and warm water to remove any grease, and apply oxalic acid by laying a piece of white cotton cloth saturated upon the spots for a short time. If it destroys the polish, repolish with oxide of tin and water applied with a cloth. If the stains are not deep, rub the surface only with the oxalic acid and water upon a small piece of cloth quickly, and wash, to free the marble of acid. Then, to give it a gloss, rub with chalk wet with water. (e) Marble figures may be washed clean by putting them out in a heavy shower. (f) Spots from sulphur and phosphorus, caused by lucifer-matches, can be extracted from marble by carbon bisulphide. (g) Removing rust from marble depends upon the solubility of iron sulphide in a solution of potassium cyanide. Clay is made into a thin paste with ammonium sulphide, and the rust-spot is smeared with the mixture, care being taken that the spot is only just covered. After a lapse of 10 minutes, this paste is washed off, and replaced by one consisting of white bole mixed with a solution of potassium cyanide (1:4), which is in its turn, washed off after a lapse of about 2½ hours. Should a reddish spot remain after washing off the first paste, a second layer may be applied for about 5 minutes. (h) Brush the dust off with a piece of chamois, then apply with a brush a good coat of gum arabic about the consistency of thick mucilage, expose it to the sun or wind to dry. In a short time it will peel off. If all the gum should not peel off, wash it with clean water and a clean cloth. If the first application does not have the desired effect, it should be tried again. (i) Rub with the following solution: ¼ lb. soft-soap, ¼ lb. whiting, 1 oz. soda, and a piece of blue the size of a walnut; rub it over the marble with a piece of flannel, and leave on for 24 hours, then wash off with clean water, and polish the marble with a piece of flannel or an old piece of felt. (j) Take 2 parts common soda, 1 of pumice, and 1 of finely powdered chalk; sift through a fine sieve, and mix with water; rub it well over the marble; then wash the marble over with soap and water. (k) To take stains out of white marble, take 1 oz. ox-gall, 1 gill lye, 1½ tablespoonfuls turpentine; mix, and make into a paste with pipeclay; put on the paste over the stain, and let it remain for several days. (l) To remove oil-stains, apply common clay saturated with benzine. If the grease has remained on long, the polish will be injured; but the stain will be removed. (m) Ironmould or ink-spots may be taken out in the following manner: Take ½ oz. butter of antimony and 1 oz. oxalic acid; dissolve in 1 pint rain-water; add enough flour to bring the mixture to a proper consistency. Lay it evenly on the stained part with a brush, and, after it has remained for a few days, wash off, and repeat the process if the stain be not wholly removed.
Stone.—(n) To remove grease from stone steps or passages, pour strong soda and water boiling hot over the spot, lay on a little fullers’ earth made into a thin paste with boiling water, let remain all night, and if the grease be not removed, repeat the process. Grease may sometimes be taken out by rubbing the spot with a hard stone—not hearth-stone—using sand and very hot water, with soap and soda.
Plaster.—(o) By means of Dutch rush or shave-grass (Equisetum hyemale), or exceedingly fine sandpaper, the plaster must be rubbed over in an equal manner, and in every part. The rubbing, being done in a skilful manner, opens the pores of the plaster; then brush it over with the thick oil used for moulding, which will give it a very pleasing yellow tint, and at the same time great solidity. If, however, a white colour is preferred, soak the cast, after the first operation has been performed, in a stearine bath. If placed in a bath of hot stearine, and allowed to remain 4 hours, it will acquire almost the solidity and the polish of marble.
Alabaster.—(p) Make a paste with quicklime and water; spread this well over the discoloured article, and leave on for about 24 hours; then remove with soap and water, applying some friction on parts which are worse than others. (q) If not too much discoloured, clean with a strong lye of soap and water. (r) The superficial dirt and grease having been removed, wash with diluted muriatic acid.
Metal Goods.—Brass.—(a) Wash with rock alum, boiled in a strong lye in the proportion of 1 oz. to a pint; polish with dry tripoli. (b) The government method prescribed for cleaning brass, and in use at all the United States arsenals, is claimed to be the best in the world. The plan is to make a mixture of 1 part common nitric acid and ½ part sulphuric acid, in a stone jar, having also ready a pail of fresh water and a box of sawdust. The articles to be treated are dipped into the acid, then removed into the water, and finally rubbed with sawdust. This immediately changes them to a brilliant colour. If the brass has become greasy, it is first dipped in a strong solution of potash and soda in warm water; this cuts the grease, so that the acid has free power to act. (c) Rub the surface of the metal with rottenstone and sweet oil, then rub off with a piece of cotton flannel, and polish with soft leather. (d) A solution of oxalic acid rubbed over tarnished brass soon removes the tarnish, rendering the metal bright. The acid must be washed off with water, and the brass rubbed with whiting and soft leather. (e) A mixture of muriatic acid and alum dissolved in water imparts a golden colour to brass articles that are steeped in it for a few seconds. (f) First boil your articles in a pan with ordinary washing soda, to remove the old lacquer; then let them stand for a short time in dead aquafortis; then run them through bright dipping ditto. Swill all acid off in clean water, and brighten the relieved parts with a steel burnisher; replace in clean water, and dry out in beech sawdust. Next place your work on stove till heated, so that you can with difficulty bear your hand on articles, and apply pale lacquer with brush: the work will burn if heated too much or too rapidly. (g) Put a coat of nitric acid over the part you want cleaned, with a piece of rag; as soon as it turns a light yellow, rub it dry, and the brass will present a very clean appearance; if not, repeat. (h) Oxalic acid and whiting mixed and applied wet, with brush, and brushed again when dry with soft plate-brush to polish with dry whiting. (i) The general idea is to use strong oil of vitriol or a strong solution of oxalic acid. Now, these two substances are very corrosive, and, although they undoubtedly clean the brasswork most effectually, they do mischief in literally eating it away, so that delicate engraving and fine edges soon disappear. In cases of brass name-plates, these acids gradually insinuate themselves underneath the black filling of the letters, generating gas, and forcing it up bit by bit. The best thing to use is lemon pulp: the waste lemon from grog or lemonade does excellently. It should be tied up in a piece of rag, plum-pudding fashion, and when it becomes dry it should be dipped in water. After the brasswork has been rubbed with the lemon it should be well washed with water, and then finished off with rottenstone and oil. One word about brass plates. There is no greater eyesore to those who worship neatness than to see a rim of worn-away paint round the brass plate on the hall door of an otherwise well-appointed house. Such a defect may be easily avoided by cutting out a piece of thick cardboard to the shape of the plate, and covering over with it the paint surrounding the metal during the process of cleaning. Another fatal mistake is to suppose that the black letters require cleaning; they do not, and any efforts in this direction only result in their being gradually worn away. (j) Embossed Surfaces.—Make a mixture of 1 part nitric acid, 2 water, and 6 hydrochloric acid. Boil the articles to be cleaned in a strong soda-lye, and then leave them in the above solution, until they become covered with a black layer. Remove from the mixed acids, rinse in plenty of water, and use a fine scratch-brush to remove the black mud. When clean, rinse in hot water, and dry in hot sawdust. Articles thus treated acquire a brilliant lustre. To give a very rich orange-yellow tone to the brass, the nitric acid may be replaced by an equivalent weight of powdered alum. (k) Brass Instruments.—If the instruments are very much oxidised or covered with green rust, first wash them with strong soda and water. If not so very bad, this first process may be dispensed with. Then apply a mixture of 1 part common sulphuric acid and 12 of water, mixed in an earthen vessel, and afterwards polish with oil and rottenstone, well scouring with oil and rottenstone, and using a piece of soft leather and a little dry rottenstone to give a brilliant polish. In future cleaning, oil and rottenstone will be found sufficient. (l) Take a strip of coarse linen, saturate with oil and powdered rottenstone, put round the tubing of instrument, and work backwards and forwards; polish with dry rottenstone. Do not use acid of any kind, as it is injurious to the joints. To hold the instrument, get a piece of wood turned to insert in the bells; fix in a bench vice. The piece of wood will also serve for taking out any dents you may get in the bells. (m) Oil and rottenstone for this purpose are, though very efficacious, objectionable on account of dirt, on account of the oil finding its way to the pistons, and because the instrument cleaned in this manner so soon tarnishes. Dissolve some common soda in warm water, shred into it some scraps of yellow soap, and boil it till the soap is all melted. Then take it from the fire, and when it is cool add a little turpentine, and sufficient rottenstone to make a stiff paste. Keep it in a tin box covered from the air, and if it gets hard, moisten a small quantity with water for use.
Scale-pans.—(n) Pour sufficient ammonia in the pan to cover the bottom, and rub briskly till dry with a handful of dry pine sawdust. For very dirty pans, take about 1 dr. potash bichromate, powder it in a mortar, mix it with 2 or 3 times its bulk of concentrated sulphuric acid, and add twice as much water. With this rub the pans (having a care for the fingers), rinse well, and finish with rottenstone.
Brass or Copper.—(o) Mix together 1 oz. oxalic acid, 6 oz. rottenstone, and ½ oz. gum arabic; all these are to be finely powdered. Then add 1 oz. sweet-oil and sufficient water to form the mixture into a paste. Apply a small portion to the article to be cleaned, and rub dry with a flannel or washleather.