Mild abrasion
Removing a deposit with particles softer than the surface beneath it. Safe or ruinous depending entirely on relative hardness.
What not to do
Mild abrasion may damage Painted and coated steel
Best avoided
The available guidance advises against this.
The technique that is correct on a stove's glass panel is wrong a few centimetres away on its painted body.
Precautions
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
Why we say this
Supported
An interpretation, labelled as one. No read source addresses stove paint directly; the inference is from the general behaviour of thin organic coatings under abrasion, and it is recorded because the component-level contrast is the clearest teaching case in the catalogue.
Sources
How to clean wood burner glass
Charnwood (A J Wells & Sons Limited) · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That the manufacturer's cleaning instructions are directed at the glass and that abrasive cleaners must not be used on it. (cleaninghq's interpretation of what it says)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The cleaning method, the cautions, and the soot-prevention section. Supports the claim as stated. Provides manufacturer-tier support for the ash technique alongside HETAS, and — more usefully — demonstrates that the same document can prohibit abrasive cleaners and recommend an abrasive powder without contradicting itself. That tension is now recorded as an evidence conflict rather than resolved silently in either direction.
Care and Maintenance of Stainless Steel
British Stainless Steel Association, Stainless Steel Advisory Service, 2001 · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That abrasive treatments leave scratch marks on finished surfaces. (background and mechanism only)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Sprint 29 re-read all four pages: Factors Affecting Maintenance, Maintenance Programme, Cleaning Methods with the whole of Table 1, Table 2, and Notes 1-10. Earlier sprints named both tables but carried only part of one and none of the notes. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. SPRINT 29 FOUND THIS UNDER-EXTRACTED WHILE ALL THREE SIGNALS CALLED IT DONE: zero representation debt, in the fully-harvested list, and honestly noted as 'read in full'. Five of Table 1's eleven rows, all of Table 2 and eight of ten notes had never reached the graph. Newly built: tannin and coffee deposits, heat discolouration, the 1% ammonia routine clearance, oxalic acid for embedded iron, and the condition-triggered domestic frequency rule. The paraphrase cap is part of the cause, and the fix is not a longer paraphrase — the facts belong in the citing records.
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Mild abrasion should be avoided for Microwave door sealing surface
Best avoided
The available guidance advises against this.
Sprint 27. Only mild, non-abrasive detergents here, and residue is itself part of what the precaution names.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Rinse thoroughly afterwards
Why we say this
Supported
The manufacturer excludes abrasion from this surface by naming what may be used on it, and its precaution panel supplies the reason. This is the one component in the catalogue where a cleaning residue is itself the named hazard rather than a cosmetic complaint.
Sources
Owner's Manual: Microwave Oven, models JEM31 and PEM31
GE Appliances · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That only mild, non-abrasive detergents on a clean sponge or soft cloth are used where the door seals against the microwave, rinsed well, and that soil and cleaner residue must not be allowed to accumulate on sealing surfaces. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Care and cleaning of the microwave oven, pages 30 and 31 — Helpful Hints, How to Clean the Inside, Removable Turntable and Turntable Support, and How to Clean the Outside. Plus the Microwave terms table on page 29 for arcing. Supports the claim as stated.
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Mild abrasion is unsafe on Non-stick coating
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Why we say this
Strongly supported
A manufacturer prohibition stated with its mechanism, not an inference. Abrasion is the named cause of the damage, so the method rather than any single product carries the edge.
Sources
How to clean my Philips Airfryer
Philips · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That metal kitchen utensils and abrasive cleaning materials must not be used on the coated pan, basket or frying insert because this may damage the non-stick coating, and that steel wire and hard-bristle brushes are excluded from the interior. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The cleaning instructions: removable parts, stuck residue, fat stains, and the interior and heating element. Supports the claim as stated.
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Mild abrasion may damage Vitreous enamel
Best avoided
The available guidance advises against this.
Specifically anything with a sharp edge — a scraper, a putty knife, a wire tool. The enamel is a glass coating and a chip in it exposes the metal underneath.
Why we say this
Supported
A manufacturer stating the failure mode of its own coating. Recorded as may damage rather than unsafe on because the source describes damage to the coating, not a hazard to the person.
Sources
How to Care For Your Cast Iron Cooking Grates
Weber-Stephen Products LLC · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That anything with sharp edges can damage the porcelain enamel coating and open the door to corrosion issues. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The preheat-and-brush routine, the brush guidance and the seasoning statement. Supports a narrower statement — our claim was reduced. Enough to open the family with the material distinction that matters — porcelain-enamelled cast iron is a COATED surface whose coating is the thing at risk, and it is not bare cast iron and must not inherit bare cast iron's seasoning routine, which the register already holds from a cookware manufacturer. Not enough to publish a stainless-steel-grate procedure or a washing-up method, and neither is published. The loose-bristle instruction is carried as a precaution wherever a wire brush appears.
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Mild abrasion may damage Solution-dyed acrylic
Best avoided
The available guidance advises against this.
Why we say this
Supported
The manufacturer excludes the technique explicitly, which matters because the fabric's bleach tolerance invites people to treat it as robust generally.
Sources
Sunbrella Upholstery Care and Cleaning
Glen Raven, Inc. (Sunbrella), 2023 · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That scrubbing, hard bristle brushes and any other abrasive cleaning method are to be avoided on the fabric. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Read in full: Outdoor Upholstery (removable and non-removable), Mold and Mildew, Indoor Upholstery, Helpful Hints, Retreating and Professional Cleaners. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. CleaningHQ expected a fabric manufacturer to prohibit bleach, as the wool guidance in this register does. This one specifies it, at a stated concentration, for its own fibre and for a reason — solution dyeing — that does not transfer to fabric dyed any other way. The catalogue therefore models the permission as a property of solution-dyed acrylic rather than of outdoor fabric, and the mildew-grows-on-the-dirt statement became the prevention answer for the whole family.
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Mild abrasion may damage Sterling silver
Best avoided
The available guidance advises against this.
Polishing creams, wadding and rouge sticks. Both conservation bodies name these as the damage rather than the treatment.
Why we say this
Supported
Two conservation authorities agreeing. Recorded as may damage at avoid rather than unsafe on because a controlled polish is not forbidden — it is a cost, and the record is about the cost being cumulative and irreversible.
Sources
Conservation Information Sheet: Looking after silver
Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS), via Museums & Galleries of NSW · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That polishing creams, wadding and rouge sticks contain abrasive compounds as well as corrosive acids, remove much more of the silver surface than a cloth or dip, leave fine scratches and diminish engraved decoration. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Silver components; Silver damage and how to reduce it, items 1-7; Recommended storage and display materials; How to clean silver. Supports the claim as stated.
Caring for your collections: Silver and plate
The Institute of Conservation (Icon) · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That wadding, creams and rouge sticks are abrasive compounds which remove silver surface, and that abrasive cleaners wear away silver and engraving with repeated cleaning. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The tarnish, cleaning, and methods-to-avoid sections. Supports the claim as stated.
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Mild abrasion is unsafe on Silver plate
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
The same technique, and on plate it has an end point. Once the plating is through, the dull patch that appears looks like tarnish and invites more of what caused it.
Why we say this
Supported
Stronger than the sterling edge deliberately. On solid silver an abrasive polish is a recurring cost; on plate it destroys the surface, and nothing domestic restores it.
Sources
Conservation Information Sheet: Looking after silver
Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS), via Museums & Galleries of NSW · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That over-polishing plated silver will actually remove the silver-plating and expose dull areas of base metal that can be mistaken for tarnish. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Silver components; Silver damage and how to reduce it, items 1-7; Recommended storage and display materials; How to clean silver. Supports the claim as stated.
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Mild abrasion is unsafe on Coated spectacle lens
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Including the abrasion nobody counts as abrasion: a shirt tail, a tissue, or a microfibre cloth carrying grit it picked up in a pocket.
Why we say this
Supported
Unsafe rather than avoid because the damage is irreversible and the manufacturer's remedy is replacement. The mechanism is the same trapped-grit one the glass association gives for windows.
Sources
Lens and Screen Cleaning: how to clean your glasses
Carl Zeiss Vision · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That dirt trapped in clothing scratches the lens and risks damaging the coating, that reusable cloths retain small abrasive particles that create minute scratches, and that scratches cannot be removed so scratched lenses should be replaced. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The what-not-to-use, cloth-care and scratch sections. Supports a narrower statement — our claim was reduced. This supports the ABRASION half of the lens question and not the chemistry half. The page read does not state that alcohol damages coatings, and CleaningHQ therefore does not assert it — which matters, because the demand batch carried exactly that claim from consumer sources and a manufacturer page recommending its own products is not evidence against a competitor's chemistry. The alcohol question stays open, and it is recorded as open next to an electronics answer that permits 70% isopropyl alcohol on a display.
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Mild abrasion is prohibited by the manufacturer for Straightener plate
Best avoided
The available guidance advises against this.
Why we say this
Supported
The same prohibition the catalogue holds for every other coated surface in it, from a non-stick pan to a spectacle lens. A coating is thin and abrasion is how it leaves.
Sources
Keratin Protect Intelligent Straightener S8598 — instruction manual
Spectrum Brands (UK) Ltd, trading as Remington · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That harsh or ABRASIVE cleaning agents must not be used to clean the appliance. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS, INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE, STORAGE and CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE. Supports the claim as stated.
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Mild abrasion is unsafe on Laminate flooring
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Why we say this
Supported
The decorative layer is printed and sealed rather than solid. There is nothing underneath it to reveal, which is why the bulletin also rules out sanding — the repair that works on real wood destroys this.
Sources
Technical Bulletin: Cleaning and Maintenance of Laminate Floor Coverings in the Home
EPLF — Association of European Producers of Laminate Flooring, 2022 · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That abrasive cleaning pads, sponges, cloths and scourers must not be used on laminate flooring, and that the floor must not be sanded, varnished or waxed. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The whole bulletin: aftercare products, day-to-day cleaning, stubborn dirt, and the disclaimer. Supports the claim as stated.
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Mild abrasion may damage Coated aluminium
Best avoided
The available guidance advises against this.
Why we say this
Supported
Recorded against the coating rather than the metal. The standard's scope is anodic and organic coatings, and marks from mistreating an anodised surface may be permanent.
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 excessive abrasive rubbing must not be used because it can produce an undesirable appearance or adversely affect the finish, and that strong solvents or abrasive cleaners can damage painted surfaces. (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.
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In detail
Mild abrasion uses fine particles, suspended in water or carried on a cloth, to break a deposit up mechanically. It is the appropriate technique wherever the soil will not dissolve — carbon and soot being the clearest examples, since no domestic chemistry touches them. The whole safety question reduces to relative hardness. Where the abrasive is softer than the surface, it removes the deposit and leaves the surface unmarked; where it is harder, it removes the deposit and scratches the surface permanently. Fine mineral powders and wood ash sit below glass and glazed ceramic in hardness and above baked-on carbon, which is the specific combination that makes them work on stove glass. The same materials are wrong on soft plastics, painted finishes and polished metal. Two secondary rules matter in practice: work with any directional grain rather than across it, and start with the least aggressive option, since a scratch cannot be undone by a gentler second attempt.
What works
Mild abrasion is effective against Soot Supported
Mild abrasion is effective against Burnt-on food and carbon deposits Established practitioner practice
On a barbecue grate the manufacturer's routine uses heat to soften the deposit first, so the brushing has less to do.
Mild abrasion is effective against Tarnish Supported
Recorded so the graph can see the conflict: an abrasive polish genuinely removes tarnish, and that is precisely why it is dangerous on a plated surface.
Mild abrasion is effective against Mould Supported
A stiff brush, hot water and household detergent. The mechanical part is the part that does the work, and the authorities say so in that order.
Mild abrasion is effective against Algae Supported
Scrape the thick growth off first, and brush the wash in well. Dead growth is then left to weather away rather than scrubbed.
Mild abrasion is effective against Soot Strongly supported
The dry-first answer, and the reason soot and creosote part company.
Mild abrasion is appropriate for Oven shelf
Safe in the conditions described
Authoritative guidance supports this combination, within the conditions described below.
Sprint 27. Deliberately a clearance: the oven's other components all exclude abrasives.
Only within these limits:
- The shelf is removed from the oven, so nothing else in the cavity meets the abrasive
- Rinsed with clean water and dried afterwards, as the manufacturer instructs
- Uncoated metal shelves; a coated or non-stick shelf is a different component and is not covered
The clearance is for the shelf off the appliance. It carries nothing about using an abrasive anywhere inside the cavity, where every other component excludes one.
Why we say this
Supported
The manufacturer names the abrasive route for this component specifically, in a chapter that forbids abrasives on the control panel, the painted surfaces, the metal parts and the door exterior. One manufacturer and one appliance class, and the record says so rather than generalising to every oven shelf ever made.
Sources
Use and Care & Installation Guide: Self-Cleaning Electric Range
GE Appliances · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That the oven shelves are cleaned with an abrasive cleanser or steel wool and then rinsed and dried, and that they may be cleaned in the self-cleaning oven but will darken, lose their lustre and become hard to slide. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Sprint 27 read Care and Cleaning (26-29) and Operating the Self-Cleaning Oven (22-25) with both Q&A panels. Sprint 28 added Important Safety Instructions (2-5) and the Problem Solver (33-34), which is where the carbon-monoxide statement is. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. The queue scored this source at zero debt because twenty-one records cite it. That was true and it was not the same thing as the passage being exhausted: the locator recorded that two sections had been read, and the rest of the chapter turned out to hold the oven shelves, the door glass, the enamel scope and two fire statements. ZERO DEBT MEANS WELL CITED, NOT FULLY READ, and the two are easy to confuse. The harvest is a component record for the shelf and one for the door glass, the enamel acid and crazing scope, the painted and metal exterior prohibitions, and the two fire facts.
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Mild abrasion is safe on, in specific conditions, Barbecue grate
Safe only in specific conditions
This is only appropriate within specific limits. Outside those limits, CleaningHQ makes no claim.
Only within these limits:
- a brush with stainless steel bristles, not a scraper or anything with a sharp edge
- check the brush for loose bristles before every use and replace it annually
- on porcelain-enamelled grates, nothing that can chip the coating
- the manufacturer's own guidance governs for the grate you actually have
The loose-bristle check is a food-safety instruction, not brush maintenance: a shed bristle lands on the surface food is cooked on.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Do not apply to a hot surface
Why we say this
Supported
Manufacturer guidance for its own grates, carried with its scope attached. It is not extended to stainless steel grates, which this document does not cover.
Sources
How to Care For Your Cast Iron Cooking Grates
Weber-Stephen Products LLC · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That a stainless steel bristle brush is specified, that anything with sharp edges can damage the porcelain enamel and lead to corrosion, and that the brush should be checked for loose bristles before each use and replaced annually. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The preheat-and-brush routine, the brush guidance and the seasoning statement. Supports a narrower statement — our claim was reduced. Enough to open the family with the material distinction that matters — porcelain-enamelled cast iron is a COATED surface whose coating is the thing at risk, and it is not bare cast iron and must not inherit bare cast iron's seasoning routine, which the register already holds from a cookware manufacturer. Not enough to publish a stainless-steel-grate procedure or a washing-up method, and neither is published. The loose-bristle instruction is carried as a precaution wherever a wire brush appears.
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Mild abrasion is safe on, in specific conditions, Stainless steel
Safe only in specific conditions
This is only appropriate within specific limits. Outside those limits, CleaningHQ makes no claim.
Only within these limits:
- Mild non-scratching creams — not abrasive pastes and not scouring powders
- A nylon abrasive pad, never a steel one
- Worked ALONG THE GRAIN on brushed and polished finishes
- Pre-soak burnt deposits first, so less force is needed at all
The finish is the constraint rather than the metal. A scratch across the grain on a brushed panel is permanent and visible from across a kitchen.
Precautions
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
Why we say this
Supported
A clearance rather than a prohibition, because the trade body clears the technique and then bounds it. The catalogue already held the grain rule as a method; this records what the abrasion itself is permitted to be.
Sources
Care and Maintenance of Stainless Steel
British Stainless Steel Association, Stainless Steel Advisory Service, 2001 · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That stubborn marks, water marking and light rust staining are treated with mild non-scratching creams while abrasive pastes are avoided, and that where a nylon abrasive pad is used on brushed or polished finishes it must be worked along the grain. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — Sprint 29 re-read all four pages: Factors Affecting Maintenance, Maintenance Programme, Cleaning Methods with the whole of Table 1, Table 2, and Notes 1-10. Earlier sprints named both tables but carried only part of one and none of the notes. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. SPRINT 29 FOUND THIS UNDER-EXTRACTED WHILE ALL THREE SIGNALS CALLED IT DONE: zero representation debt, in the fully-harvested list, and honestly noted as 'read in full'. Five of Table 1's eleven rows, all of Table 2 and eight of ten notes had never reached the graph. Newly built: tannin and coffee deposits, heat discolouration, the 1% ammonia routine clearance, oxalic acid for embedded iron, and the condition-triggered domestic frequency rule. The paraphrase cap is part of the cause, and the fix is not a longer paraphrase — the facts belong in the citing records.
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Why
- Mild abrasion is explained by Mechanical action and abrasion
When the obvious answer is wrong
How do I remove limescale from a marble shower without ruining the marble?
Marble is also calcium carbonate. The acid cannot distinguish between carbonate deposited by hard water and carbonate that is the stone itself, so it dissolves both. The result on the stone is etching: a dull, slightly rough patch where the polished surface has been chemically removed. It is not a stain and there is nothing left on the surface to clean off.
A different kind of treatment works: Take the mechanical route rather than the chemical one. The stone trade's stated treatment for surface accumulation of hard water — what it calls water spots and rings — is to buff with dry 0000 steel wool, which is fine enough to lift the mineral film without cutting the stone, and involves no acid at all. Work on the deposit only, keep it dry, and stop as soon as the film has gone. Prevention does more than any treatment here: a squeegee after each use removes the water before it can evaporate and leave its minerals behind, which is the moment the deposit is actually created. If the surface is already dull in patches rather than filmed, that is etching rather than scale, no cleaning method will touch it, and re-polishing is a job for a stone restorer.
How do I get hard water spots off a bathroom mirror without wrecking it?
A mirror is not a pane of glass. It is glass with a reflective coating and a protective backing, and both are exposed at every edge. The glass industry's mirror division states that acid or alkali cleaners can attack the front surface, the edges and the backing, and names cleaners containing ammonia or vinegar specifically as ones not to use. The failure is called black edge, it starts where liquid runs into the perimeter, and it is degradation of the mirror rather than dirt on it.
A different kind of treatment works: Change the mechanism from dissolving to drying. The mirror division's own recommendation is clean warm water on a soft lint-free cloth, wrung out, with the mirror dried immediately afterwards — which works because the deposit is created at the moment of evaporation rather than while the water sits. Apply any liquid to the cloth and never spray it at the mirror, so nothing can run down into the edges, and finish by checking that the joints and edges are dry. Where a mark will not come off with water, the paper's stated method is 0000 oil-free steel wool, explicitly not a solvent, since solvents attack the edges and backing too. The prevention is the whole answer in a bathroom: ventilate, and wipe the mirror dry rather than letting the condensation evaporate on it.
How do I get tarnish off silver-plated cutlery without wearing the plating through?
That sentence is also the problem. Tarnish CONTAINS silver, so removing it always removes a little metal, and abrasive polishes carry corrosive acids as well as abrasive compounds. On solid silver that is a slow recurring cost. On plate the silver is only microns thick, so the same treatment is a countdown - and the museum sheet records how it ends: over-polishing plated silver removes the plating and exposes dull base metal that CAN BE MISTAKEN FOR TARNISH. The reader then polishes harder, on the one area with nothing left.
A different kind of treatment works: Work out which you have first, because the answer diverges and hallmarks are how you tell. On plate, drop down the escalation rather than up it. Both conservation bodies read here direct a silver cleaning CLOTH as the routine treatment for light tarnish on plain undecorated pieces, and the museum sheet states that a cloth or a dip removes far less surface than a polishing cream does. For heavier tarnish the UK professional body permits a silver DIP, with conditions that are not optional: follow the container instructions, wear gloves, use fresh solution, and rinse thoroughly - dip left in crevices keeps corroding and produces a green crust. Electrochemical cleaners, including the aluminium-foil-and-bicarbonate method, are ruled out by both bodies as a class. The larger answer is to clean less.
Where the sources disagree
Stove glass guidance prohibits abrasive cleaners and recommends ash, which is an abrasive. Which applies?
The two statements use the word 'abrasive' to mean different things, and once that is seen the contradiction disappears. The prohibition is about materials harder than the glass — grit-loaded scouring creams, metal and nylon scouring pads, blades and scrapers — which cut the surface. The recommendation is about a specific powder that is softer than glass-ceramic and harder than baked carbon, which is the exact relationship that lets an abrasive remove a deposit without marking what is underneath. HETAS makes the boundary explicit in the same article by warning separately against large remnants in the ash: coarse unburnt fragments are the hard particles the prohibition is about, and they arrive mixed into the very material being recommended.
What to do: Use fine ash, sieved or taken from the fine layer rather than scooped with clinker in it, on cool glass, and stop if you feel grit. The prohibition on abrasives is not overridden by the ash technique — it is the reason the ash has to be fine.
The sources are answering different questions
Sources for this page
Sources
Cleaning product science and ingredient information
American Cleaning Institute (ACI) · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That abrasive cleaning products are selected according to the hardness of the surface being cleaned.
Verification: the work exists and is described correctly. Nobody has yet read the specific passage.
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