=Brass and Copper=: Remove tarnish from brass and copper with salt and strong vinegar or oxalic acid (see section Renovators). Rub hard till bright all over, wash in clear, very hot water, then while still hot polish with a clean chamois skin dipped in sweet oil, and a pinch of either whiting or very fine sand. Rub quickly, wipe with soft paper, heat moderately, and set away. This gives the mellow old look. Copper cooking-vessels must be scoured inside and out, first with the salt and vinegar, then with soap and sand. A greasy cloth rubbed over the outside protects them without being dangerous. If stains are deep enough to demand oxalic acid, be sure to wash afterward with boiling water and borax. =Bronze=: Wash bronze with a soft brush in hot, weak borax water, dry quickly, keep warm, and rub all over with a clean cloth wet in turpentine with the barest suspicion of wax. It must not coat the metal, hardly even film it. Make bone-dry before setting away. =Pewter=: Remove spots with a swab of whiting lightly dipped in oil. Wash in weak suds, rinse well with boiling water, dry, and polish with hot sand and a stiff brush. =Silver Tarnish=: Tarnish, like a bad habit, must be checked in the beginning. Prevention is better than cure. Keep big things, when not in use, well wrapped in wax paper with blue paper outside that, and absorbent cotton added. Put inside canton-flannel bags, tie tight, and keep dark and dry. Watch all things not thus ambushed closely. Remove spots as soon as visible, either with salt and whiting wet with borax water or ammonia and French chalk. Rub hard and quickly, wash off, wipe dry, and polish with dry whiting or plate powder, or what you will. Treat egg-stained spoons with wet salt. Fortnightly at least wash every bit of silver in sight in warm borax soapsuds, rinse in boiling water, dry with clean towels, and rub lightly with sifted whiting. Cover chasings and engraving with wet whiting, let dry, and brush it off. For things in high relief fold chamois skin over the point of a blunt skewer—thus you can rub the deeps. Count at each washing and keep sets together. Upon a damp cleaning day lay a trayful of small things in a half-warm oven, letting them stay till hot and dry. Clean toilet silver with oxalic acid of one-third strength, taking care to touch with it nothing but the metal. Wipe with a cloth wrung very dry out of hot water, and polish with a chamois dipped in alcohol and whiting. Wrap a cloth about the bristles in cleaning brush backs, and wipe with old silk after the polishing. =Things Gilded=: Wipe dust carefully from anything gilded with a soft silk cloth, then polish with a clean chamois sprinkled lightly with alcohol and dipped in thrice-sifted whiting. Rub steadily but not hard. Blow dust from deep carvings with a hand bellows unless a vacuum cleaner is in use. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER VIII