Care & Restoration

Good objects ask very little. Here is what they ask.

Copper and brass

Wash by hand and dry immediately. Both are meant to darken, and a well-used copper pan should look like one. If you want the shine back, half a lemon and a little salt will do more than any proprietary polish. Never in the dishwasher.

Carbon steel blades

Dry them the moment you have finished. A film of oil if they are going away for a while. They will take a patina, grey or blue or sometimes brown. That is the steel protecting itself, not a fault, and it is the reason carbon holds an edge the way stainless never quite does.

Crystal and hand-blown glass

Hand wash in warm water with very little detergent, and dry with linen rather than cotton, which sheds. Store upright. Resting a glass on its rim will chip it eventually, however careful you are.

Olive wood and end-grain boards

Never soak them and never put them in the dishwasher. Scrape, wipe, and oil once a month with a food-safe mineral oil. A board that has gone pale and dry is thirsty rather than finished.

Linen

It gets better. Wash warm, tumble low or line dry, and stop ironing it after the third wash.

Stone, terracotta and unglazed ceramic

Porous by design. Soak new terracotta before its first planting, and expect it to weather, stain and grow a little lichen. That is the point of it.

Outdoor timber and iron

Oil hardwood once a year and it will silver slowly rather than split. Iron can be left to rust honestly, or waxed if you would rather it did not.

Before you throw anything away

Write to us. Where a maker offers a repair or a re-handle or a re-grind, we will arrange it. Where they do not, we will tell you who can.