White marble pastry boaRD

[Tomteifi]

Hi

Are there any experts on here please knowledgeable in honing a marble board which is lightly scratched all over? Its from an old wash stand and has been cut and edge dressed but not cleaned or honed and ideally, I would like to be able to use it in the kitchen for dough making etc. Don't need a totally shiny finish but need something a bit better than matte. Have all the usual hand and electric tool suspects at hand and some fine papers up to 1000 grit plus bars of green blue white and black but don't quite know where to start. All help will be greatly appreciated. I know there are honing powders available at a price. Are there any alternatives?

cheers

Tom.

 

[Dogoak]

Baking soda is your friend

 

[Toddy]

It is indeed

Baking soda and whiting…..which is really feldspar and clay…it's a very fine mild abrasive and was used to clean and polish the tiles of a hearth and leave the grout crisp and white again.

No idea where you'd find whiting nowadays though

M

 

[BushBerks]

I've no idea about the balance no soda idea, but you can buy really fine polishing pads, specifically for the job. Whatever you use to polish out the scratches, make sure you seal it properly before using it in the kitchen, as marble stains very easily. It scratches really easily too!

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[BushBerks]

Sorry typo.. *baking soda*

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[Janne]

Maybe you can go to your local company that does stone and marble kitchen worktops and ask both for advice and for a small amount of the polishing compound?
These people know exactly what you need!

 

[mountainm]

I bet micromesh sheets would do the trick.

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[Tomteifi]

Hi all


Thanks very much for you knowledge- I will be trying all of these. Toddy, looking on ebay the only place selling feldspar is in usa with horrendous p&p-will look for a substitute.(I thought whiting was a fish lol) Thanks again, will post when solution is found.

cheers

Tom.

 

[Toddy]

My husband suggested Vim or Ajax, the stuff I use for scrubbing the steps
I wouldn't 'cos it's got bleach in it, but it's the right consistency I suppose.

The thing is that the marble is calcium carbonate and any acid will attack it, leave pitting in the surface, and it will stain, and we don't want that to happen, and certainly not with something potentially toxic or that will leave some kind of taint.
Polishing it up just needs the diligent application of elbow grease and a slurry of something. Astonish paste would probably do fine to take the surface back, but I don't know how much polishing it would do. The bicarbonate of soda that we recommended just needs made up into a thickish paste and it removes stains and the like, again I don't know how much polishing though.

Best of luck with it be interesting to hear how you get on with it.

I know folks who use offcuts to make bakestones for pizzas and flat breads in the oven, but they're not bothered about a shiny surface for those. I only use a piece as a hot pad that gets nuked in the microwave and it keeps dishes warm at the table. It's shiny, but I just wipe it with a damp cloth and dry it really well. A couple of times I've been tempted to use it cold for pouring chocolate for scraped curls though, but was told that it would stain deeply

M

 

[Tomteifi]

I've started working on the board firstly by giving it a jolly old scrub down with a nail brush and warm soapy water(in the shower lol-the board not me) and my god did some dirt come out of it? yes it did, rather a lot. It is after all part of an antique washstand that was accidentally broken several years ago. Apart from cleaning it, it has now shown up where and what the actual scratches are on it i.e. many and varied, none deep though fortunately. I used an amount of wetted baking soda and a pinch of elbow grease on a cloth to give it a decent rub down(it looked very relaxed afterwards) and that has dulled the finish to a slightly dull matte-perfect. Its not something that has photographed well(and I should have taken one before I cleaned it but hey-ho) but I will put one on here anyway. I've researched this a bit and found there are firms adverting on ebay who polish stone worktops and who may, hopefully, sell me small amounts of the diminishing grit powders that will restore it-not cheap-but worth it I feel for the finished product. Just for scale it is 23" long and 14" wide-sorry for the poo picture(oops meant to say poor picture but, poo is better) Lol- it looks a bit like a painting of Llandudno in the haar. he-he.

 

[Toddy]

The folks who make tumble stone jewellery, and use a rumble drum to do the polishing, buy grit in assorted grades to do so.
We have a range of them in one of the sheds, from aluminium oxide to cerium…..they weren't that expensive to buy sample packs from the suppliers for tumblers.
Kernowcraft used to do it, so did Scotrocks. No idea who to look for now though.

Sounds as though just scrubbing off the muck and grime has made a great improvement It's a good size, isn't it ?
Best of luck with the polishing

M

 

[Tomteifi]

Thanks for that info. I shall research some more in that direction. I like the sound of 'sample packs'- brings the sound of 'pounds saved' to mine earholes!
You are right, there is an improvement (despite my camerafone-some days good, some days foggy- a bit like me I suppose) and it is a very useful size
for all sorts of culinary magic. I'm not after something I need welding goggles to look at-just nice and smooth will be finer than a fine thing.
The plot thickens-or should that be thins?

cheers

Tom

 

[Toddy]

It's not buttons, is it ? :yikes:

I typed
polishing grits, cerium
into ebay's search engine…..and there's masses of stuff on there.
The cheapest seems to be stuff meant to polish glass windscreens, so it'd certainly have a go at your marble board.

atb,
M

 

[zornt]

You might try some tooth paste, not the gel kind. We used to polish actions on bolt action rifles. It makes a very fine polishing compound.