Guys, I fucked up. I have what was a beautiful two-tone colander that looked nice and retro, with a shiny red finish. After some use, there was a very tiny amount of rust showing in places around the rim, and my dumbass self decided to soak it in CLR like I do with anything metal that gets signs of rust. It didn’t occur to me that it would remove the gloss finish from the powder-coated enamel.
Now it looks and feels awful, like it has a dull, pink, rubbery coating instead of the beautiful glossy bright red finish of yore.
Is there a product I can use to polish it back to beauty? It wasn’t cheap and has been discontinued, so I’d like to restore it if possible.
I’ve searched online but my Google-fu isn’t worthy, apparently. Thanks in advance!
Why not?
also do you want to use it for cooking or look at it shine? It’s a colander, not a bronze chandelier from Napoleon’s castle.
because possibly a thermal coating was removed and there is paint underneath which is coming off or reacting to things that are coming into contact with it
It sounds like there wasn’t an extra coating that I removed, but that I just etched the fired coating, making it dull rather than glossy – so it’s the same outer coating that existed, it’s just not glossy anymore. In theory, it’s still as food-safe as it was, but it’s porous now (it kinda feels like silicone).
i would listen to these warnings. i know how devastating it can be to lose a valued item like that, but it really would be irresponsible to use it to serve food again. i know id be a little upset if i saw a friend had made my dinner with such a colander, as dickish as it may sound.
i don’t know how sound your theory here is. i’m not a chemist or a food scientist myself but hang around a lot of them for my studies and work rn. i sincerely doubt the veracity of it being “still as food-safe as it was,” as even just the coating being porous could render it an unsafe surface to prepare food upon. and again, that’s assuming that is the only thing that’s different about the coating, which is a bold assumption.
edit: if you really cannot part with it (which again, is understandable) then i second everyone telling you to get it refurbished/do it yourself by sandblasting all of the existing coating off
and then reapplying a new ceramic coating (you can go with other food safe options that don’t require a high temp furnace but at this point of this process we’re getting into “can easily fuck it up more permanently” territory, hence the recommendation for professional services if this colander is that important). depending on when the ceramic was made, what the coating is, and other factors this could definitely be anywhere from “cool to do in the garage on a nice day” to “absolutely do not get anywhere near the dust and keep good track of every single bit of it” levels of danger.quick edit again: i didn’t wanna misinform you so i asked my friend who’s into ceramics rq. i was wrong. seems only the high temp silica glazes are food safe, all the enamel stuff you can do at home isn’t kosher for eating with apparently. my apologies
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