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Cleaning An Ashtray
Gray4lines
Posts: 4,691 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Cigar 101
So, maybe 2 years ago I bought a cool little ashtray at a flea market. It is a retro glass piece from a local (where we lived in WV) glass factory, Blenko.
After using it for a while and abusing it some, a nasty ash "film" covered the bottom and many hard-to-reach areas. Ash got rained on, then baked in by the sun. You can see here:
After multiple attempts at cleaning with dish soap, soaking, Brillo pads... nothing was getting this stuff off. Not a huge deal, but I really like this ashtray and of course they haven't made them in 40 or so years. I really wanted to clean it back up. Ah ha! Plain old white vinegar... Dissolved that crap right away and I scrubbed it one last time. Good as new.
I don't know if anyone has had a similar problem (or cares about their ashtray), but I wanted to share. Maybe kind of a "duh" thing as vinegar is a great cleaner and ash is a basic ph (right?) but I hadn't thought of it until today. Don't know if metal or ceramic ashtrays can get as grody as mine or if they are a little tougher.
After using it for a while and abusing it some, a nasty ash "film" covered the bottom and many hard-to-reach areas. Ash got rained on, then baked in by the sun. You can see here:
After multiple attempts at cleaning with dish soap, soaking, Brillo pads... nothing was getting this stuff off. Not a huge deal, but I really like this ashtray and of course they haven't made them in 40 or so years. I really wanted to clean it back up. Ah ha! Plain old white vinegar... Dissolved that crap right away and I scrubbed it one last time. Good as new.
I don't know if anyone has had a similar problem (or cares about their ashtray), but I wanted to share. Maybe kind of a "duh" thing as vinegar is a great cleaner and ash is a basic ph (right?) but I hadn't thought of it until today. Don't know if metal or ceramic ashtrays can get as grody as mine or if they are a little tougher.
LLA - Lancero Lovers of America
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I've used rubbing alcohol in the past, worked good on my stainless steal stinky jr
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
BTW your ashtray is very cool.
Run it through your coffee pot to clean the tubes and stuff. Run a couple of pots of water afterward and to rinse the vinegar out.
Add baking soda to it to make a paste for scouring.
Make a paste of vinegar and salt to clean chrome, brass or copper.
It kills mold and mildew.
It is a remarkable cleaner.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
This puzzles me, Tony. White vinegar is acidic. It seems to me that mixing it with baking soda is going to neutralize the whole schmear, isn't it???
Edit: white vinegar usually runs about 2 to 4ph...
In a paste, it wants to react a little, but not a lot.
Why it works, is a bit complicated.
White vinegar and baking soda work on a lot of things. Many folks use it to clean bathtub or sink drains.
Not unclog, just clean. It does seem to work.
One thing to be aware of, if you use white vinegar to scrub bath walls, vinegar can eat at grout, so be careful.
Vinegar is an acetic acid, baking soda is an alkali. Combining the 2, creates a sodium acetate/CO2 reaction. The chemical reactions cause the remaining chemicals/crystallines to react with the base metals to clean them.
Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) + Vinegar is acetic acid (CH3COOH) = sodium acetate trihyrate (NaC2H3O2) + H2O + CO2
This is a quick summary of it and not totally complete, as there is a little more to it. But it provides the basis of it. A little boring, but you asked. LOL!
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
I'm a linear thinker. Mathematics, chemistry and mechanics are things that linear thinkers seem to do fairly well.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
I stub my cigar out in my belly button. Don't you??
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *