Thread: Dealing with blemishes

I wondered what the best way was to deal with surface blemishes or stains. Nothing major, something without a powertool like a dremel or a wheel. Is steel wool a bad idea? What is a good idea? What is Maas? Is it just a polish or does it help get out stains? Look forward to your thoughts. Thank you!

When you say stains do you mean surface spots from water or you mean crust pitting etc?
Maas is a metal polish and can clean stain spots but will not be able to remove enough metal for more serious restoration work.

yup i mean surface spots from water. dark patches. so Maas metal polish is what i should be using? with a cloth?

Originally Posted by ganboyi

yup i mean surface spots from water. dark patches. so Maas metal polish is what i should be using? with a cloth?

Yes, you can also use Mother's which is readily available @ Walmart, and cheaper.
http://www.mothers.com/02_products/p...5100-05101.jpg

thanks, i am overseas (taiwan) so will get it sent from somewhere if I cant find it around. thank you!

Keep in mind that Maas does remove patina, which is not to say it's bad (I use it myself), its just somthing you should know. If you are talking about things like black specks, they are just going to keep coming back no matter what you do....unless you remove enough steel to get down the level of the pits. If you are going to use steel wool, stick to 0000, unless you want a lot of ugly scratches that are also subject to rust.

hope this helps.

Steel wool works but can get everywhere and, if the blade is magnetized is a total pain. Water spots can come off with a crunched up ball of Aluminium foil. With all these methods, including Maas, beware of getting close to gold wash, it can be removed in a few seconds.

interesting. crunched up aluminium foil and nothing else or with some polish. thanks!

Originally Posted by ganboyi

interesting. crunched up aluminium foil and nothing else or with some polish. thanks!

Generally, nothing else, though with polish can be useful too, try nothing else first. IME, the earlier in the stain's life that you hit it, the more likely it is to be easily removed, YMMV.

wow....never heard the aluminum foil thing for water stains, but I'm sure going to try it. Aluminum is pretty sweet as it is not nearly as hard as carbon steel. And I agree on the steel wool bits on the magnetic blades - what a pain!