Cleaning hands.

Washing up liquid and sugar, usually. Bought some green swarfega (the most evocative smell from my childhood!) but my wife appropriated it for my stepson

The real tip is to use lanolin barrier cream then you can clean up with soap!

Neil

I have never understood the very common notion that sugar added to soap of washing up liquid etc. has any beneficial effect in cleaning hand. Perhaps it is the initial gritty feel of the sugar granules that give the impression that it is a good cleansing agent. Sugar is readily soluble in warm water and as far as I know has no solvent action on oil and grease.

No doubt someone may be able to explain the reason why sugar is used in this way.

Eric

Hi Eric,

Soap doesn't dissolve in the WUL and so acts as a gentle abrasive. The Washing up liquid acts as a craiier. It then dissolves when you add water and the detergent can go to work. It's like the granules in fast orange or similar.

You could use sand, but of course it would be harder to was away at the end, plus sugar and washing up liquid are found in all kitchens.

Neil

In days of yore, ie BME, I used to do all my own car maintenance and generally got rather mucky. A quick jam of the old digits into the boss's washing machine powder, a drop or three of H2O and off all the muck came. Then I discovered Swarfega - the green version - which I think is probably better for the hands than detergent powder.

I find that Swarfega along with a scrubbing brush - as long as it is a decent stiff one, and not a namby-pamby ladies gentle skin tickler one - does the job satisfactorily.

Recently, Aldi had a pack of disposable latex gloves going remarkably cheap. Perhaps as well because it would be remarkably easy to damage three or four a day. I've now, after only a few days gone back to bare hands.

I did find with these gloves that they became extremely slippery once they came into contact with cutting fluid or oil. Ok, it wiped off easily, but in the end, I'm not convinced.

I've also used paraffin to get the really deeply engrained stuff off, WD40 if it happens to sticky stuff or methylated spirit for Araldite, and sometimes white spirit/turpentine for paint. I've even used that horrible solvent for Hammerite paints. But, these days I do wonder just what damage these items are doing to the skin so I can't really recommend any of them. Of course, after using these liquids I usually have a good handwash with good old soap and water. Perhaps the answer may be to reserve the gloves for use with the worst of these solvents.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

(BME - Before Model Engineering)

Not good, WD40 was discontinued within the UK Mod as being a known carcinogen, the PX24 that replaces it smells of ancient cats pee.

Not a good idea to take the scent of that indoors either.

A surprisingly high proportion of people are or become allergic to latex gloves. That's why they use nitrile in first aid kits.

Neil

I hope they don't become allergic to those other latex products or we will be neck deep in babies !
I remember a hand cleaner from years a go but i can't remember its name- it looked like sour cream but had a funny chemical smell like kerosine and came in an orange drum.
Probably been banned by now or something !

That reminds me of a product i haven't seen for a while and i'm not sure if it was available outside Australia - Ajax .
This stuff took everything off and i liked to use it when i was binding the guides on fishing rods as it stopped any skin oil contamination on the threads - must have a look at the supermarket to see if it still exist !
Used to use this stuff at the Hardchrome shop to clean metal before plating especially cast iron etc .

Ian

> I hope they don't become allergic to those other latex products or we will be neck deep in babies !

I guess you mean waht ozzies call sellotape? Don't joke about it, some poor souls have to suffer =8-0

Ajax scouring cream? Haven't see it for decades!

Neil

I've never tried this, but a pal who was a roofer and regularly got splashes of bituminous compounds used to swear by his home-made "Green Swarfega" - a gel formed by mixing washing-up liquid and paraffin. As an angler, I can tell you that a very effective killer of bad smells is lemon-flavoured Fairy liquid.

This one?

**LINK**

Bought some so called green swarfega from asda recently...not a patch on the old green stuff we useed to use! Dont know how anyone can work in gloves, I rely on touch too much to use them, and they leave your hands stinky! Find washing powder way too abraisive, organic solvens destroy your skin so I always use dry guard barrier cream and wash with fairy and sugar. Wife goes mad cos the fine metalic bits settle on the pots and go rusty almost instantly!

Autosmart "Extra Hands" brilliant at removing grime and doesn't dry your skin. Buy it in 5 litre containers, lasts for ages.

Mike

Thanks for reminding me! I'd forgotten that my brother used that recipe 40 years ago, before he caught Chartered Accountancy and could afford a better car. Must give it a try myself.

Andy

Andy

I used to make my own hand cleanser, as a bi product of bio diesel production - saponification which leavs a soapy residue...for the purists out there, 3CH3(CH2)14CO2Na... Got it a bit pear shaped one day and ended up with potassium methoxide CH3KO...a rather potent nerve agent which is readily absorbed through the skin!

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