How To Clean Candlesticks

Melt all the wax or grease off with boiling water; but on no account melt it by putting the candlesticks before the fire, as it melts the solder. Tin candlesticks must be cleaned as other tins are. Plated candlesticks should be cleaned with plate-powder.

How To Clean The Inside Of Pots, Pans, And Kettles

Boil in the kettle or pot a little sal-ammoniac for the space of one hour, to remove the fur. Be sure to wash out a dirty saucepan with boiling water the moment you finish using it.

How To Clean Steel Or Iron

Make a paste of two ounces of soft soap and four of emery-powder - that is, two ounces of coarse emery-powder and two of fine. Put this paste on fire-irons, fenders, etc., and afterwards rub off with dry wash-leather. Some people use crocus-powder moistened with sweet oil. This is best for polished steel.

How To Take Rust Out Of Steel

The steel must be covered with sweet oil, and left for 48 hours, then rubbed with leather, and this must be repeated till the rust is removed. Or you may rub it with the finest emery-paper.

How To Clean Cast Iron And Black Hearths

Mix together blacklead and whites of eggs to a liquid consistency; paint the stove, etc., all over with it, and rub bright with a hard brush.*

How To Clean Looking-Glasses

Wash them with spirits of wine; dry them; powder slightly with whiting, and rub off with a leather. Take care that the whiting does not get into the edge of the frame.

Polish the mahogany frames with furniture paste. Beware of spilling scents on polished looking-glass frames, as it removes the polish.

How To Clean Plate

Plate should be treated with great care. Never put it into a basket or tray with knives, nor mix spoons with forks, for fear of making scratches, which nothing will remove. Wash it directly it comes from table with warm water and soap, rinse it in cold water, wipe it, rub it well with a leather. Never suffer mercurial preparations to be used for silver. It is a really saving plan to boil it for half an hour in soft water, with whiting and yellow soap enough to make a lather. Rinse it with cold water, wipe with a soft towel, and rub with a leather.

Gas blackens silver sadly, and the deep stain can only be removed by a plate-powder. Rouge (which is made by the precipitation of sulphate of iron by carbonate of potash) is most generally used, and does very well. In our own household the plate is cleaned by being first nicely washed in warm water and wiped dry. Then a mixture is made with whiting and gin, or spirits of wine (which is in many respects better), and it is rubbed wet on the silver. A sponge is used to rub this mixture on, as it is soft. It is let dry very thoroughly, so that it will rub off like powder with a piece of flannel; then it is polished with a chamois leather. Be sure that the whiting is reduced to the finest possible powder. It should be ground quite fine and even, then sifted through coarse book-muslin, as any rough bits will scratch.

* A most excellent varnish to prevent rust is made of one pint of fat oil vamish, mixed with five pints of highly rectified spirits of turpentine, rubbed on the iron or steel with a sponge. This varnish may be applied to bright stoves, and even mathematical instruments, without hurting their delicate polish. - Dr. Brewer's " Guide to Science," p. 260.