baking soda

I often find lovely vintage plates at thrift stores. Often they are scratched from daily use and stained to boot. It puts me off and I usually leave them there. I came across a number of these Crown Lynn Shibui plates, no chips or cracks, but stained scratches (at a super bargain price!).  I gave them a good wash, but the stains remained. I have a LOVE of baking soda and use it for all sorts of cleaning and other projects, that is what I turned to to fix the stains.

I just dropped a small amount on the plate, wet it ever so slightly so it was a thick paste. I gently used my finger to rub across the stains in a circular motion, then rinsed with water and ta da! Stains disappeared! Easy as that. The plates looked amazing once I was finished - none of the hand painted details had rubbed off and they were gleaming. So think again when you see some stained plates at thrift stores - the answer to make the look like new might just be baking soda!