# Bar Keepers Friend



## DeeSter

So... hey all! Still mostly just a lurker (except for that fly-by-night post ages ago... sorry!... I think I think y'all are intimidating with your mountains of knowledge lol!). Any-who, I felt compelled to share this for the rest of the lurkers who may have doubts about BKF. I've, of course, heard about it, but never seemed to run into it so I just kept on with my same old, same old routine. Soaking, or Dawn, or white vinegar, or Efferedent, or brushing, or what I like to call the "shake, rattle, and roll" - or various combinations thereof. Finally... my local shop starting carrying BKF powder so I snatched it up.  Um... yea... AMAZING! This sad little bottle has been on my shelf for years, and was subjected to all my tricks. As you can see in the before, didn't work so much. The after photo was, literally, 15 short minutes of me just lazily rattling around some fish tank gravel, some BKF, and a bit of water while binge-ing on Netflix. (I hope the difference comes through in the pictures well - I lost the natural light. There's a storm brewin' here in the 603.)  TL;DR - It's amazing. Buy it. Use it. Love it!


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## sandchip

Quite a difference.  I'll have to try that sometimes.


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## hemihampton

Bar Keepers Friend I think works better if left on the surface awhile to work. you can add water to mix as paste or dissolve in water but works best if left alone awhile to do the work its self. LEON.


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## DeeSter

I was definitely impressed! Whatever the hazy crud was that was in there was impervious to *everything* I tried. Obviously it wasn't truly sick or I would still be shaking it trying to polish it out but, nevertheless, this result makes me want to have a go at all the others I have just see if there'd be an improvement. Maybe, to Leon's point, I'll load the sink on Saturday and start soaking - then spend Sunday doing some shaking if there's a need. Good thing that paint I use only comes off with acetone - although I suppose I might enjoy re-highlighting cleaner, shinier ones! []


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## Bixel

I love BKF. We cant get it here in Canada, we can get products that are close, but just dont work as well. I get it from the States when I can, that reminds me I am almost out! I have found it works great on ACLs and also works pretty well on porcelain enameled stuff(signs). I actually havnt tried using it on the inside of a bottle while shaking it around with some sort of abrasive(sand, small gravel, etc) but I will have to try that some time. I also use it for general cleaning. Works wonders on countertops in the kitchen or stovetops.


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## hemihampton

If you cant find Bar Keepers Friend you can use ZUD instead. They both contain the same active ingredient which is oxalic acid. Myself I cut out the middle man & just use 100% pure white Crystaline oxalic acid. LEON.


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## Bottleworm

I just bought a can of BFK and I am in love with it. I have a rock tumbler and I fill it with packing peanuts and put the bottle in there so it won't move and then I put some BFK water and copper pellets in the bottle and tumble my hazy meds and they are coming out like new. I am really impressed by Bar Keepers friend. So glad you shared this with us.


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## deenodean

Bixel said:
			
		

> I love BKF. We cant get it here in Canada, we can get products that are close, but just dont work as well. I get it from the States when I can, that reminds me I am almost out!
> 
> I have found it works great on ACLs and also works pretty well on porcelain enameled stuff(signs). I actually havnt tried using it on the inside of a bottle while shaking it around with some sort of abrasive(sand, small gravel, etc) but I will have to try that some time.
> 
> I also use it for general cleaning. Works wonders on countertops in the kitchen or stovetops.


Kyle, we can buy Bar Keepers Friend here in Nova Scotia at Home Hardware. Where I live I can only buy the powder but in other areas they also sell the liquid. I have never tried it but the guys here really like it, but it is not always 100% effective.


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## DeeSter

Wait bottleworm... you use a rock tumber!? Why the heck did I never think of that? Oh, I am so going to Wally-world and buying one instead of trolling the interwebs for a used bottle tumbler! Most of my haphazard collection will definitely fit in the inexpensive kid sized one lol (might have to jury-rig the opening but I've been known to be handy when it counts) And my cruddy ones are cruddy on the inside only. $40 is better than hundreds even if it doesn't end up being powerful enough!


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## Bottleworm

Yeah it works great. I have the large size drum my meds and some of my hutches fit in it. I fill the drum with packing peanuts and then get the bottle fill it with BFK, water and copper pellets then put it in the peanuts nice and snug and then put press and seal on the top to hold the stuff in and depending on how bad the stain is is how I determine how long to keep it in there. I can only do the inside but most of mine only have the stain on the inside so it works good for me. Hope it works for you.


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## Plumbata

A rock tumbler for cleaning the insides of bottles... Sounds pretty awesome! I don't like the look or feel of many bottles that get an external polish but the inside is a different story. It would really improve the look of lots of my dug druggists, I'll have to poke around for something like that, good idea man.


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## hemihampton

What keeps the packing peanuts on outside of bottle from moving away from bottle to where the outside of bottle is now rubbing up against container & no peanuts to protect it? LEON.


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## cowseatmaize

Or, what keeps the peanuts from staying and leaving spots of untunbledness? []


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## Plumbata

You could surround it with gobs of bubble-wrap, then chink it in place with peanuts once centered inside the canister. It really is an affordable and appealing idea.


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## hemihampton

what if you clean the inside but outside is all beat to hell. Then whatcha do? LEON.


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## Bottleworm

I fill it all the way up with peanuts and I make it so they are pretty compact. Then I get the bottle and maneuver it in the middle. The bottle is always in the same place in which I put it. Leon if the outside is beat up there is nothing I can do. I just do the inside of my bottles. I can only do meds and a few of my smaller hutches.


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## DeeSter

I think it's a stellar solution... especially with Plumbata's idea of adding a layer of bubble wrap! Of the bottles I own, I think there's only a small handful that are even close to something resembling pristine on the exterior. I'm weirdly drawn to flawed glass. Bruises, scuffs... even those annoying fleabites everyone seems to dislike. Gives them character, I think... perfectly imperfect! But the interior haze and crud... that's a different story. I'm a mineral oiler, but even that's often only marginally effective at masking it.  To Leon's earlier point, I did some soaking yesterday and also noticed a marked improvement on some of those exteriors. Obviously, I highlight all my bottles, and I've found over the years that some glass has a strange, almost repellent issue that causes the paint pen to bleed (like a Sharpie on paper). BKF seems to have eliminated this on almost all of the ones that had it, letting the paint stay on the embossing where it belongs! Bottleworm, if I can ask... where do you get your copper from?


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## Bottleworm

My dad had a bunch of old wiring that was in our house that was copper. He striped off all the crap off and gave me like a 25 foot long strand of copper wire and I cut it up. Too expensive to buy it.


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## iggyworf

I still need to try this . That is exactly how I got a large pile of copper also.  Free from scrap wire.


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## andy volkerts

works great in a tumbler also[][][]


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## Bass Assassin

I have used rock tumblers in the past to clean corroded/stained coins when I was metal detecting ALL the time. I would put the coins in and throw a little water and comet in and run it for about 24 hours. Works great... BKF is the best cleaner i can find as far as cleaning glass. Put some in with copper shot and let the shaking begin. It can remove many stains. However, I never thought about using a rock tumbler for bottles. I think it's a great idea and may look around for one with a larger container.


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## covert-

Bixel said:


> I love BKF. We cant get it here in Canada, we can get products that are close, but just dont work as well. I get it from the States when I can, that reminds me I am almost out! I have found it works great on ACLs and also works pretty well on porcelain enameled stuff(signs). I actually havnt tried using it on the inside of a bottle while shaking it around with some sort of abrasive(sand, small gravel, etc) but I will have to try that some time. I also use it for general cleaning. Works wonders on countertops in the kitchen or stovetops.


You can get BKF in Canada from Canadian Tire.  I've been buying it there for a while: http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/bar-keepers-friend-powder-cleanser-0532226p.html#.VsUmmfIrKUk


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## Houdini

Where can you buy Bar Keepers Friend in the states? Wally World? Lowe's?


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## andy volkerts

In California Home Depot has it.......Andy


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## Robby Raccoon

I just use Baby Oil in my bottles that are stained white. Bad staining is still quite cloudy, but light and medium staining pretty much goes away. It doesn't work on glass damaged by smokers.
I also use it on the outside.

Drawback is, you have an oily bottle, which I just wipe down with paper towel. You also may have a bottle that looks wet on the inside forever, as it forms droplets. 
A dry bottle brush with paper towel can help this.

But, unlike spraying the bottles, it is quite reversible and should see the bottle in time return to its former state.

I will investigate the rock-tumbler idea when we stay over 50 F, as I have one.


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## Dr Pepper bottle man

I used to spray my bottles with WD-40, inside and out. 
Bought a bottle off Ebay, put it on the shelf and 3 or 4 days later there was a lot baby oil in the bottom settled out.
From then on I used a bottle tumbler for inside and out.
I bought a 2 bottle used for $300.00 but my friend built his for less than $100.00
See 7oz Stylized letters on a Waco King of Beverage bottle below after tumbling


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## Gene

Thanks for the tip. I tried this on a couple of bottles that had white scale marks on the inside that I couldn't get off. I got the BTF and used it with water and some small, smooth fish tank gravel that I got at Walmart for cheap.

I just rocked the bottles back and forth for awhile, let them sit overnight and the BTF and gravel removed about 95% of the scale.


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## nranderson

It was brought to my attention that a good strong denture cleaner dissolved in hot water in a bottle overnight will clean the sickness away from inside the bottle. I tried it and in some cases it was a miracle in others mixed results. I think the amount of cleaning depends on how aggressive mother earth has been to the bottle while buried.


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## Bottlebonkers

Just bought oxalic acid. What mix proportions do you use? Thanks. A


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