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Hi, I am looking for a UK equivalent to a metal cleaner that will clean firescale from small pieces, I have discovered that Penny Brite which is manufactured in USA is used for this purpose and is a citric acid based cleaner but despite a few purchases here, have found nothing effective. Wondering if anyone here has found something similar?
Thank you
Melanie
You need to set up a pickle pot, do a search here and you will find what you need, however it will not remove fire scale, the best way to remove fire scale is not to create it in the first place
Yes Bob is right. Penny Brite is a metal cleaner containing citric acid and is primarily intended for polishing copper.
A fairly hot solution of alum, or safety pickle followed by any polishing system will do the same.
Firescale is copper oxide found on the surface of silver, as a result of heating with an oxidising flame (the point of the blue cone). It can be mostly avoided by coating your metal with a flux prior to heating and/or using a less fierce flame for as short a time as possible. It is also less visible if you settle for a satin finish.
Once established it can only be removed by etching with nitric acid, or aggressive polishing. It can also be disguised by silver plating, or depletion gilding (heating and pickling repeatedly, to leave fine silver on the surface. Dennis.