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!
You could spray it with clearcoat. No idea how that reacts to heat though.
You could try to polish it.
I second this, if it’s really a hard a material. From the word enamel I assumed a sort of ceramic coating, but the word ‘rubbery’ gives me a little hesitation.
Anyway, a hard coating could be polished back to a shine with 3M polishing paper. The product I’m thinking of comes in a pack with 6 sheets, each a different grit, and they get fine enough that you could restore scratched and cloudy glass to clear.
The product description said ‘powder-coated enameled finish’, and I had thought ‘enameled’ may have referred to the outer layer I destroyed. So now I’m just dealing with the powder coating.
I think I’ll try your recommendation first – it’s the most food-safe and makes the most sense to me. Kinda worried I’ve irreparably ruined it without re-coating and re-firing it. I hope that’s not the case, and the ‘enameled’ part referred to the white inner bit which didn’t dull in the soak.
e: maybe someone who knows more about these terms than me will chime in? I know a little about them because my grandmother taught ceramics and my father is in aviation where they do powder coatings, but not enough, obviously.
The powder coat is the enamel. It’s a ceramic powder that’s sprayed on and then cooked in a furnace.
You have etched it. That, I am sorry to say, is permanent. If you have access to a furnace you could try refiring it, a few minutes at 1500 f would do it, if it can be done at all. You’ve basically turned a smooth glass layer in to a kind of sponge. You need to melt that outer surface again.
I’m hoping to, thanks! I’m not sure what to polish it with, though, especially because it would have to be food-safe…
I’d start with a little area to see how it turns out.
I have some of that, but I’ve had it dull proper enamel fired coatings before because it’s very abrasive, so I’m scared to try it on this.
It’s great for knives and other bare metals. I guess it can’t make it much worse, though, so I’ll try it in a small area, thanks for the suggestion!
Carnauba wax is food-safe, but non-abrasive, so it won’t smooth the now-etched matte surface, and it’s fairly soft, so not very durable. Many car waxes are based on it.
I would not be using this for cooking
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 wonder if a silicone oil could get some shine back as a last resort
Le Creuset makes a cleaner for their enameled cast iron, but I don’t think it will do anything for a ruined finish. :(
https://www.lecreuset.com/cast-iron-cookware-cleaner/94001125001005.html
“enhancing the shine of the enamel.” 🤔
