Oakite Cleaning Stuff..Who recalls it?

[Flivverking]

The never ending job of "save or TRASH" over 50 years of mostly auto paper /ephermera ,here is an advert for "Oakite Cleaning Solutions " during the second world war.

Never heard of it or seen a old container..

Notice on the fold-out ,double sheet the nose of a Cord is shown for a radiator clean.

[Flivverking]

[Flivverking]

[TerryB]

I’m not that old😉! Actually I do remember ads for it but can’t remember ever using it.

[Gary_Ash]

The Oakite I remember using was a powder that came in a box.  I think "Spic and Span" powder is similar, though formulations may have changed due to EPA regulations.

 

The Oakite brand still exists but is now a product line of BASF.  There are several types of Oakite still being sold.  Scroll down to see the Oakite products:

https://www.chemetallna.com/products/by_app/cleanerPretreat.aspx

[TexRiv_63]

My father was a company rep for Oakite in the 1940s and 50s in the Chicago area. We had lots of samples all over the house and garage.

[GARY F]

As a kid in the 40s-50s my grandfather would take a coffee can , mix up Oakite and water. drill a hole in his paint brushes, put a stiff wire through, hang the brush in the Oakite a day or two, then rinse and it would remove all that paint that didn't come out from washing after use.  Back then almost everything was oil base. His brushes always looked like new. You know how the paint is caked up near the top .

[Rusty_OToole]

In the early seventies I worked in a General Foods plant, we used Oakite for cleaning the production equipment. I remember scooping the powder out of a bin and choking on the dust. That stuff would dissolve anything.

[f.f.jones]

In the '40's and '50's, my mother used a metal Oakite silver cleaning plate (see below) to clean the tarnish off her silverware. It was purchased in a printed paper envelope that was used to store the plate in after each use. She would fill the kitchen sink with a few inches of water, add a spoonful of Oakite powder then arrange the silverware in the sink so all the pieces touched the cleaning plate. It worked!