Cleaning nickel-plated tools...

Alcohol and Q-tips

Ted Owen, Pittsburgh

>

An electric toothbrush

Andrew F in Australia

>using either toothpaste or mineral turpentine.

Re: An electric toothbrush

William R. Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Isn't that a power tool? Would you recommend rectlinear, rotary, ultrasonic, or a combination thereof? And, what's the problem with using a manual toothbrush, or can you now only find those, used, at the flea markets in OZ? We're going to have to ask the conservators about the potentially adverse reactions between the stanous fluoride and the nickel plating.

Tongue planted in cheek on the Cohansey,

Don't know if it's best, but it works for me

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Hesitant to take the toothbrush out to the shop? Concerned about bits in your teeth after? Try the kitchen solution!

I am a big fan of soap pads (SOS, Brillo, in the U.S. - and did you know they were invented in San Francisco? Tonight's geographical trivium). Very gentle, very effective. You have to clean up the tool thoroughly afterward, and keep rust from attacking - I use WD-40 as a post-cleaning treatment.

Post-cleaning treatment and rust prevention...

Mark Harrison -- in Sydney, Australia

>I used to use WD-40 but I don't any more. Firstly, it isn't that good on hand tools that are going to contact wood as it will stain.

I tried Camelia Oil but that really doesn't offer sufficient protection for intermittently used tools, which for most of us here is all of them :-)

I have been using wax for the past 18 months and that is the best of all of the things I've tried. The product I've been using is Liberon's Lubricating and Rust Preventing Wax. I highly recommend it.

Just to compare what I have to deal with. I live about 900 meters to the sea shore which is a plateau overlooking the sea. We get the sea breeze from about 270 degrees. I had a new car and the chrome tail pipe was 90% discolored with surface rust inside of three weeks!