Slate hearth
 

We have a black slate hearth about four/five years old and it is
difficult to keep clean. Anyone know of suitable cleaning materials
that will remove cup/class stains etc. Thanks in anticipation

"Confused" wrote in message
om...
We have a black slate hearth about four/five years old and it is
difficult to keep clean. Anyone know of suitable cleaning materials
that will remove cup/class stains etc. Thanks in anticipation

My Granny used to clean her slate front door step with milk.She lived in
Blaenau Ffestiniog so I suppose she must have known something about slate.
Tom

"Tom" wrote in message
...

"Confused" wrote in message
om...
We have a black slate hearth about four/five years old and it is
difficult to keep clean. Anyone know of suitable cleaning materials
that will remove cup/class stains etc. Thanks in anticipation

Know what you mean Tom. I believe slate is porus, so once it's in there is
probably difficult to remove. Best solution is probably not to leave glasses
on there in the first place, or stick a coaster under that bottle of red
wine warming by the fire. When I've had stains I've just cleaned with a bog
standard surface cleaner (or a very mild soap solution), then re-oiled by
spraying a light film of WD40 on, then wiping off. When it's a shiny black,
it's harder to see the marks.

HTH.

Confused wrote:
We have a black slate hearth about four/five years old and it is
difficult to keep clean. Anyone know of suitable cleaning materials
that will remove cup/class stains etc. Thanks in anticipation

We had a slate hearth may years ago. We just wiped it clean with a wet
cloth, then applied Zebo Black Lead, which was a paste that came in a
yellow and black tube. It blackens the slate and polishes to a shine.
I'm not sure you can guy it now though. You could probably use a grate
polish though?
http://www.starchsupplies.co.uk/prod...products_id=34

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 00:50:01 +0000, Sloper
wrote:

Zebo Black Lead,
I'm not sure you can guy it now though

Even Tesco still carry it. Not hard to find at all.

Zebo is a lousy polish. It's intended for hot fireplaces, which is the
primary requirement for it. It's made from graphite and oil, no wax
component to it, so it doesn't polish up worth a damn. If you want a
black wax polish that generally works far better but won't take any
heat, then Liberon's black patina wax is better. This is wax, carbon
black and (I think) some silica.

Slate is highly variable and the best polish does vary a little
between where the slate is from and how it was cut or polished. For a
polished slate, the best polish is Godard's marble polish - a very
hard polish with a high carnauba content. For unpolished flat slate,
I use Liberon's Black Bison furniture finishing wax polish in neutral
colour. Apply either with a brush, not a cloth, and buff well. For
cleaved slate, use an oil or wax emulsion finish applied very lightly
- a paste wax will build up in the crevices and leave white residues.
--
Smert' spamionam

Andy Dingley wrote:

Zebo is a lousy polish. It's intended for hot fireplaces, which is the
primary requirement for it. It's made from graphite and oil, no wax
component to it, so it doesn't polish up worth a damn.

I could have sworn my old dad used to use Zebo on our hearth. It used to
look fine. Perhaps I'm mistaken.

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 23:06:29 +0000, Sloper
wrote:

I could have sworn my old dad used to use Zebo on our hearth. It used to
look fine.

It works fine on cleft slate - the surface is rough enough that you'll
never get a real polish on it. But if you have a polished stone
insert in a cast iron mantel, then getting Zebo on the stone is a hell
of a job to get off afterwards.

--
Smert' spamionam