CLEANING KITCHEN STOVES AND OTHER METALS To Clean Stoves.—First examine the stove or range to see if any parts need replacing. Make CL note of these, and obtain new ones from the manufactur ers or some local merchant. Remove clinkers, clean the grate, fireplace, spaces under and over the oven, flues, etc. Dust off the top of the stove, and wash the outside with very hot water and soda applied with a stiff brush or a coarse cloth, or both.
Suggestions for removing rust and polishing nickel and other ornaments, and for blacking and polishing the stove and preventing rust when not in use, will be found elsewhere.
To Make a Hearth.—Prepare mor tar by mixing sifted wood ashes with salt and water in the proportion of 1 tablespoonful of salt to 1 gallon of ashes. Spread this over the hearth with a trowel, and tamp it down as hard as possible with the end of a log of wood, or otherwise. Level smooth ly with the trowel.
Make a hot fire in the fireplace or grate. If the mortar cracks, more, tamping it into the cracks. This makes a hard, smooth white surface.
Or mix 2 parts of unslaked lime and I part of smith's black dust with water, and treat as above.
To Clean Grates.—Brush the dust from the grate with a stiff brush. Then mix 4 ounces of pure black lead with 1 pint of beer, add 2 ounces of hard white or yellow soap, bring all to a boil, and while hot apply this mixture with a paint brush. Allow it to cool, then polish with a hard brush or polishing mitten.
Or, if the grate is much rusted, al low the black lead to remain for a day or two. It will loosen the rust so that it can be scraped off. The grate may then be blacked and polished.
Or first scrub the grate with soap and water and apply rotten stone moistened with sweet oil. Black and polish.
To Black Grates.—Melt 21 pounds of asphaltum and add 1 pound of boiled oil. Remove from the fire, and when cool add 2 quarts of spirits of turpentine, stirring vigorously. Ap ply with a brush.
Or melt 61 pounds of asphaltum; add 1 pound of litharge and 1 gallon of boiled oil. Boil until the mixture falls in strings from the stirrer. To
test, put a little on a glass plate. If on cooling it becomes quite hard, re move the mixture from the fire, and when cold, thin to any desired con sistency by adding 3 or more gallons of spirits of turpentine.
To Prevent Rust.—Substances rec ommended for preventing rust are various animal fats, as lard, suet, and tallow, and oils, as linseed oil, olive oil, vaseline, etc.; also black lead, paraffin, collodion, quicklime, gutta percha, varnish, pitch-tar paint, and • various mixtures of these. The ob ject in all cases is to prevent contact of the metal with the oxygen of the air, especially where there is mois ture.
The formation of rust is a process of combustion similar to that which takes place in breathing and in the burning of fuel and other combusti bles. The oxygen of the air uniting with iron forms a compound called ferrous oxide, which is iron rust. This action is very much hastened by mois ture. Hence a coating of any oily, greasy, or sticky substance which will adhere to the metal without inj uring it will prevent rust. Which of the following recipes is best will depend upon the article to be protected, and whether or not it is to be used or stored away. Such substances as col lodion, paraffin, and black lead mixed with lard or other animal fat, boiled linseed oil, etc., can be used on small polished articles, as steel tools, skates, and the like. They can be readily re moved, when necessary, by washing.
Paraffin, collodion, boiled linseed oil, and copal varnish may be applied to tools and other articles which are in process of use, the excess being wiped off with a dry cloth. Pitch tar and paint can, of course, only be applied to coarser articles according to their several characters.
Stoves—To Prevent Rust.—To pro tect from rust stoves and stovepipes that are taken down in the spring and stored during the summer, apply kero sene with a brush or cloth. The crude oil is better for this purpose than the refined. It costs less and does not evaporate so quickly.