How I ruined–and revived– my Bakelite flatware handles, part 3

I promised a couple more Bakelite cleaning solutions for Part 3, but I decided to stop at just one more. All the other suggestions I found involved some sort of polishing compound–Mothers PowerPlastic, jeweler’s rouge, Meguiars, Novus plastic polish (favored by Martha Stewart), recipes for homemade polishes. I simply couldn’t talk myself into buying a lot of stuff I might not ever use again.

All these solutions had one thing in common–they are all mild abrasives. And so are melamine sponge erasers.

I had a box of store brand erasers on my shelf so I gave it a try.

The results were fantastic. Not only does very light rubbing remove all the oxidation in a few seconds, it also removes tarnish from the metal. The spoon I tested looked nearly as good as new. I was impressed enough to keep on going and polish a dozen more.

Really fast. Easy. Non toxic. My spoons are looking pretty good again. I think I might buff each handle with a little canola oil just to add a finishing shine.

How I ruined–and revived– my Bakelite flatware handles, part 2

I’m still working on the best way to restore my Bakelite flatware. Here are four more cleaning solutions.

409 cleaning solution is mentioned frequently in connection with Bakelite, primarily as a way to “test” if it’s the real deal. What the heck, I decided to see if it would work. Yep, there’s more!