Chamois
A drying tool rather than a cleaning one, and named as such by the standards guidance for finished aluminium alongside a squeegee and a lint-free cloth.
In detail
A chamois is a soft, highly absorbent leather — traditionally sheepskin, now often a synthetic equivalent — used to take water off a surface rather than to lift soil from it. Its job is the last step, and the standards guidance for architecturally finished aluminium places it exactly there: after washing and rinsing thoroughly with clean water, the surface is air dried or wiped dry with a chamois, squeegee or lint-free cloth. That instruction exists because of what happens when water is left. Dissolved minerals stay behind as spotting when it evaporates in place, and on stainless steel an evaporating film concentrates chlorides on the surface, which is a corrosion risk rather than a cosmetic one. Two cautions. A chamois carries no abrasive of its own but it carries whatever grit it has picked up, so it belongs on a rinsed surface and nowhere near an unrinsed one — the trapped-particle mechanism the glass trade names for scratching. And a chamois that has dried hard should be soaked soft before use. On a large pane a squeegee outperforms it; a chamois is better on the shaped and edged surfaces a blade cannot follow.
What works
Chamois is effective against Water marks Supported
Sources for this page
Sources
AAMA 609 & 610-02: Cleaning and Maintenance Guide for Architecturally Finished Aluminum
American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA), 2002 · Standards body
Relied on for: That after rinsing thoroughly with clean water the finish is air dried or wiped dry with a chamois, squeegee or lint-free cloth. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Read in full. Sections 3 General, 4.1 light surface soil, 4.3 organic coatings, and 5 Cleaning Precautions. Supports the claim as stated.
Cleaning methods for stainless steel
British Stainless Steel Association · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That rinsing and drying complete the cleaning of stainless steel. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The whole article, compared clause by clause against SSAS Information Sheet 7.20. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. Recorded as a dependent source, so it cannot carry a claim alone. Its overnight-bleach-soak instruction and its salt-and-vinegar caution are the specific, domestic-scale statements CleaningHQ needed and are cited alongside the information sheet rather than instead of it.
Last reviewed by a person on .