Tea Spoons

Dissolve some biological washing powder in a tea stained mug with hot water and manky spoons. Soak overnight and as if by magic...........!

Rik

Sorry to disagree with NDIY, but using bleach DOES remove the stains of Tea or Coffee. You should see the inside of our Tea pot before SWMBO pours in a little thick bleach and then hot water. After a couple of hours, the effect is dazzling.

Mlton is a dilute solution of Sodium Hypochlorite, so will have the same effect, but over a longer time period...

Howard

I have tried most of the above in my stainless coffee jug i don't fancy drinking my coffee after having bleach in it has anybody got any other thoughts please. The inside of jug is nearly black after a few months so much for stainless.

I would not want to use anything that was not designed to put in one’s mouth.

So Milton (or supermarket own brand version) is ok as is denture cleaner.

Washing powder, bleach, do not “tick the boxes” for me!

.

CIF is like smokers tooth cleaner but in a liquid. Both aggressively abrasive, so would probably do a good job as cylinder grinding paste. CIF at least, could contain powdered pumice which given the quantities available is probably 'cheap as chips.'

sandblaster or wheelabrator should shift the tea can muck (and maybe the tea can)

Hi

Milton contains sodium hypochlorite as does Domestos , I use Domestos to clean spoons as it takes far less time to do the job.

Maurice

Would like to stress that the discolouration of the spoons in question is not tea stains and all reasonable methods have been tried for their removal, Jif, washing powder etc, the problem appears to be a metallurgical problem. Haven’t tried buffing on a wheel yet, reluctant to use any harsh or mechanical method to remove the discolouration. Hoping someone on here with metallurgy knowledge could explain the reason why they have discoloured, probably due to dodgy material specifications, it seems that a lot of industries nowadays go for the very cheapest options when manufacturing, profits are paramount. Dave W

Silver has a nasty habit of nitrating ! Having been taught basic chemistry one could apply it !!! Clean the toilet H2So4, Move a tree, Naclo4 + icing sugar ! Sadly now one can't get most of these things, lest we throw them in someones face ! Etc. Noel

I'm amazed that no one has said sodium bicarbonate. I was complaining of the thick tea stains on my mug to someone. they told me to try it. I wasn't expecting much and was surprised how well it works.

David.

Apologies fellow enlightened one.

The communal teaspoon for the workshop tea swindle used to look like it was made from mahogany, a scotchbrite pad would return it to a satin silver finish but I wouldn’t use it on a domestic spoon, especially a mirror polished one.
it is important to rinse any cutlery and crockery, I wouldn’t recommend putting a dishwasher tablet in your mouth or drinking coffee machine descaler but sufficient rinses will at least dilute any trace of cleaner to a safe undetectable level.

Mike

I think Dave W is correct, the "staining" issue has little or nothing to do with tea or coffee stains. Our daily use stainless steel cutlery is over 40 years old and has gradually gone a sort of shiny black where it hs been in contact with food. It seems to be well into the metal rather than just a surface stain. Interestly the forks and spoons are much worse than the knives. These are items that never come into contact with tea or coffee. I've tried all the recomendations above over the years but reluctantly come to the conclusion that the only remedy is to get the polishing mops out and put them on the bench grinder. I've tried Basso and Silvo and they do make a bit of an impression but it's really hard work, to much effort for a full set of six. I do wonder if the dishwasher tablets might be partially to blame.

Peter

Graham, MC Black -

You are worrying needlessly. After all, you don't drink the stuff but use it to clean the surfaces or vessels then rinse it all away - just as you use a hand-cleaner and wash that away before touching food! The purer the bleach, the easier it is to wash off, as well, because it does not contain the gelling or foaming agents added to surface-cleansers.

If you left traces of disinfectant or bleach on your crockery or in a flask by insufficient rinsing, you would notice the smell and taste at far below dangerous amounts.

Milton Fluid is a very weak solution of a hypochlorite chlorine-donor designed primarily for disinfecting things like babies' feeding bottles.

The water purifying tablets you can buy for making spring or stream water safer to drink, is the same substance.

So, probably, is the dentists' mouthwash.

Mains water is chlorinated to about 2ppm Cl, I think by gaseous chlorine.

And these are all rather less of a cocktail than hand-cleanser, shower-gel, toothpaste and washing-up liquid!

Swimming-pools are disinfected at 4ppm Cl; by Cl gas in some big commercial pools but otherwise by solutions of, very commonly, sodium or calcium - and the complaints about the Cl making your eyes sting, are mistaken. It does not. The stinging is from chloramines, the by-products created when the disinfectant meets the 'orrible sweat, sun-tan oil, err, etc. from grubby 'erberts who don't shower before diving in.

'

"The inside of jug is nearly black after a few months so much for stainless."

Don't blame the metal. "Stainless" means corrosion-resistant, and stains from beverages are a coating, not corrosion.

As for me, I have used both bleach and oven-cleaner ( not together) on my tea-blackened crockery and stainless-steel flask. Leave it to soak overnight, rinse out and wash in the normal way. And I'm here to report it.

.'

Samsaranda -

I have wondered that too. Some of my teaspoons are very discoloured although gentle scraping with my thumb-nail will remove a lot of it. Even so it does seem that bleach or over-cleaner (I think the latter is caustic-soda in a foaming agent) effective on mugs, is not so effective on the spoons.

'

Jeff -

You brought back a wry memory for me, with the idea of sand-blasting mugs and spoons.....

Many years back my caving-club team returned to our host club's cottage, on an afternoon of our long weekend stay there, to find a rather chilly atmosphere among their members.

It transpired one of theirs had arrived in the afternoon, found himself alone at a loose end, so thought he'd be Very Helpful: a dangerous combination... He had set about scouring the club's stock of frying-pans, apparently of a metal laminated inside and out with a thick lacquer of super-stick solid carbon. The only thing was...

He used a wire-brush in an electric-drill, resulting in bright satin-finished metal, but failed to wash the pans properly afterwards.

As one of his club-mates remarked when he and his pals returned from their own caving trip, "I was looking forwards to my fried steak, but couldn't even give it to my dog, it was so covered in aluminium powder!"

A few squirts of kitchen bleach spray in water removes tannin stains gently enough.

Has anyone put aluminium (no-anodised) through a dishwasher?

I'm thinking of camping pans etc.

Apparently the unpleasant dark grey colour is healthier as it renders the aluminium less soluble.

I was reading oven man's post and wondering about his experience of stainless steel cutlery going black, and then I got to the mention of dishwasher tablets.

My wife and I have a dishwasher but rarely use it - being just the 2 of us and having simple meals and being retired and Radio 4 listeners we tend to wash up after every meal with washing up liquid in a bowl. Our 40 year old daily use stainless cutlery is as bright today as when we bought it.

Rod

I pull couple of sticks of rhubarb from the garden and boil in water and leave to go cold then drain. Leaves Ali and Stainless saucepans sparkling clean. Ita likely that other fruits will work as I guess its the weak acid that does the job

There's a lot more Oxalic acid in the leaves. It also spares the stalks for eating.

My mum uses Baking soda for discoloured tea stained spons and teapots too when it comes to it.

regards Martin

Our 50 year old cutlery set (Rogers, Sheffield) which visits the dishwasher every couple of days is still bright with the exception of the knives whose blades are stained and, as a result, are now hand washed. Spoons, forks and knife handles are made from austenietic stainless but knife blades, in the interests of keeping an edge, are made from martenstic steel which is more corrodible. Don't know what our cheap spoons of unknown origin are made of. They are very nearly black with deep corrosion, often show rust spots and are irretrievable.

Perhaps Rogers and firms like them no longer exist because their products lasted too long !