[poorstudent83]

Hi all....

Just wondering if anyone has any tips for cleaning metal spatula's??

[g-bones]

If its a relatively well behaved solid you can just wipe it off with a kim wipe and that would be the end of it.  for those more sticky, hygroscopic solids, rinse with acetone then wipe with a kim wipe.  Hasn't failed me yet

[408]

90% of the time I neer wash them, just wipe them with a towel.  The exception is after flame testing a compound, then there is junk stuck usually, so that gets 2M HCl overnight, then a rinse and paper towel.

[Mitch]

I like using 70% ethanol on a chem wipe, that way it gets sterilized as well.

[poorstudent83]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys....these spatula's are, however, a bit old and weary! I'm trying to revive them! Maybe it's a lost cause!

[orgopete]

If you are talking about the spatula that you used to weigh out aluminum chloride and forgot to clean immediately and now it is rusty and cruddy looking, then I use one of those green cleaning pads. It will restore the color, but it will also scratch the surface, so don't expect it to come back shinny. (You would have to buff them up again for that.)

I had all kinds of spatulas (and spoons, "borrowed from the cafeteria"). They were not all shiny, but they were all clean.

[democanarchis]

For really wrecked spatulas I put them in a beaker with about 20 mL of conc. sulfuric acid, and use a pipette with the tip snapped off to rinse them down. Come out dull, but can buff them back up with some steel wool

[ardbeg]

why do people want shiny spatulae?

[408]

Shiny is an end goal in itself in science.  Jeeze, read the manual.

[jeffmoonchop]

corner of labcoat

[OrganicDan96]

rise with acetone, sometimes water then wipe with paper towel.