Miracle Cloths

[Brian F.]

Anyone use Miracle Cloths offered on Joe's to clean their reels? Always wondered if you'd need a whole bunch or if they last for several uses. From what I've seen others say about them on lures, would they affect a patina on a reel?

[Ron Mc]

they have an abrasive in them and will definately remove the patina. They are great to brighten up aluminum reel seats, rod ferrules. Also good to keep the calcium deposits down on rods, both grass and plastic. Have to be careful with reels, unless you're trying to get to bright metal.

On the cleaning threads, check my dilute vinegar wash (followed by soap and water) - the safe and slow way to clean a reel.
Next step up in more aggressive cleaning would be the polishing cloths, followed by simichrome/pol, etc.

one of the best uses I've found for the polishing cloths is working down rust on steel parts.

The cloths pick up metal tarnish rapidly and discolor. IMO, you have to be careful not to spread this stuff around. In their theory, the cloth should last until it fragments because the abrasive and citric acid are embedded through the cloth.

I buy them by the dozen at about $1 each. Check the gun cleaning supplies on ebay.

[clinton_beeler]

I'm going to try the vinegar wash (sounds like a really good idea). For rust we always used coca-cola. The phosphoric acid works well, but if the metal is pitted then it will have to be delt with another way. How abbrasive are those cloths?

Regards,
Clinton

[Ron Mc]

Clinton, hard to describe exactly. I'd say finer and a quite a bit softer than 1200 grit sandpaper. It brightens both aluminum and brass fairly quickly, and is much slower on steel. It will leave swirl on brass which will quickly rub out with simichrome.

[Guest]

I have used Miricle Juice on Bakelite ends on some of he old ocean reels and it worked pretty good. It does take the greese of from someone over lubing these reels.