Tbh, I thought vinegar was useless for cleaning rocks until last weekend

I was trying to clean some calcite I found near the river, and my usual water and brush method wasn't touching the iron stains. My kid suggested vinegar, and I figured it was a waste of time. I let a piece soak in a 50/50 mix for about 20 minutes, and the orange stains just fizzed right off. Honestly, I was shocked. I always thought you needed stronger acids for that. Now I'm wondering, what other simple household stuff works for cleaning different minerals without damaging them?

3 comments

3 Comments

abbyg6023d agoMost Upvoted

Last year I was convinced my favorite agate was ruined by some weird white crust. Spent twenty bucks on a special cleaner that did nothing. Turns out it was just hard water spots from my own rinse, and a quick soak in some lemon juice cleared it right up. Felt like a total genius after that. For softer stuff like calcite or malachite, I stick to mild things like vinegar or lemon juice now, but I'm too scared to try anything stronger on my good pieces.

susanm5617d ago

Hard water spots are the worst. But that special cleaner scam is just sad. Glad the lemon juice trick worked out.

king.aaron23d ago

Ever try baking soda paste on a cloudy quartz? My buddy swears by it for a gentle scrub, said it worked better than soap.