Public Service Announcement

I know that some of you might think that I never really post anything informative. All I ever do is post about vintage furniture and stuff that I find at great prices...blah, blah, blah. What's your point? Well, today I give you some information that might actually be useful to you in the future. You never know. It has to do with cleaning vintage enamelware. You may know that I have two of the Finel Arabia Finland bowls in the above pattern. I have one large and one small. I only have a rudimentary knowledge of Finel Arabia so when once again my hand reached for an enamel bowl a few days ago, I went with it. When I got home I found the pattern online and discovered it was also by Finel Arabia. The only problem I saw was the condition. It didn't really bother me but I wanted to try and see if I could clean it up. I had no knowledge of what was the best method for cleaning vintage enamelware so I let my fingers do the research for me. I found a few suggestions and moved forward. I first began with simply trying some dish washing liquid and a sponge. Nothing budging.

As you can see it looks like it sat in a vat of strong coffee for several months. I only used a sponge for cleaning because I did not want to damage the surface. My next attempt was to use a paste of baking soda and white vinegar. Do not ask me for quantities because I was winging it as usual. Once I made a thin paste I coated the inside. You may notice that I have no photos of the interior. That is because I did not think to actually share the information until I started on the outside. So, I coated it and let it sit. It literally only took minutes before I could notice a change.

When most of it was gone I then began to use my fingers to swish the mixture around. Again, I did not want to scratch the surface and my hands seemed to work fine. Once I felt it was clean I rinsed it out with water.

Can you believe the difference?

Now you will know what to do when you are floundering back and forth over whether or not to buy that dingy piece of Finel Arabia. You can thank me later.