Does anyone have any tips for cleaning bathing conches i wash mine daily after use with hot water and weekly soak it in boiling water. I'm sure the internal structure of the coch is a breeding ground for bacteria and was wondering if there's any way to properly clean it. Tumeric is supposed to have antibacterial properties but would probally stain the shank.
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Re: Cleaning bathing conch
Tue, July 3, 2007 - 4:17 AMHaribol prabhu,
So I usually use my conch shell for water only, because the conch are hard to clean. Now the way I clean water filters is to soak them in dilute bleach, but don't know if the conches would like this! An alternative would be to soak them in hot water with antibacterial dishwashing soap, something gentle like palmolive. If it's kind on the hands, it can't hurt the shells. The tumeric would stain them. I can't think of a natural way to clean them. Baking soda could get rid of any odors, and may clean them simultaneously. We are now using this to clean our paraphrenalia in the temple pujari room.
Hope this helps. Hare Krsna!
SriRKd
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Re: Cleaning bathing conch
Wed, July 4, 2007 - 3:18 AMHaribol Prabhu,
I also use Bleach; Jik or Domestos to clean all conchshells. The conch shells that are used during arati end up having lots of slimmy stuff if not cleansed. I stand conch in its normal stand that we use during arati. Then fill up conch with Jik/bleach. Within an 1hr you will notice the dirt that was dislodge. Thereafter I wash in hot water. Thus far my conchshells have not shown sings of erosion or decoloring but remain as natural. Blowing conches - I soak in hot water with same detergents. Hope you find this helpful.
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Re: Cleaning bathing conch
Wed, July 4, 2007 - 3:36 AMHaribol,
I as also wondering about this subject, I just use hot soapy water like Krishna prabhu said, although I did make one mistake when some I scrubbed the exterior part of the shank and now tha gloosy finish has come off and its just a matt effect. Has this ever happened to anyone? Any suggestions...
Haribol -
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Re: Cleaning bathing conch
Wed, July 4, 2007 - 7:23 AMpolish it properly. it's a shame these days, but sooo many shortcuts by vendors, we have an old set here (from the 1930s) and they were polished using (i guess...) sand paper to smooth over bits, and then buffed really nicely - really smooth, and shiny, so it'll never wear off, and then now there is the added bonus of age which makes everything better... -
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Re: Cleaning bathing conch
Wed, July 4, 2007 - 12:39 PMI thought about using bleach as when i was involved with aquarium fish we used to use a mild bleach solution on shells that were to be used in fresh water. However i was concerned about using chemicals for deity worswhip. I use baking soda to polish all my silver deity parifenelia and whenever possible lemon juice fror brass and copper, although i occasionally use chemical polishes. -
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Re: Cleaning bathing conch
Wed, July 4, 2007 - 7:12 PMI find the baking soda isn't very good with cleaning silver. It works but, once in a while, the regular scouring powder is necessary to clean up the carved portions of paraphrenalia, and prevent buildup...
Incidentally, I used just tamarind paste (like the kind from the Indian stores...tamicon) on my deities and it works well. This is what Prabhupada recommended (actually lemon juice and tamarind paste in a letter to Satsvarup Maharaj on how to care for the little Radha Krsna deities in Boston). I was out of lemon juice and so just used a cotton ball with tamarind paste to wipe down my deities...The brass is SHINY now... and it wasn't abrasive, and washed off completely very easily. I've found tilak and lemon juice- the standard- to be difficult for smaller metal deities, as the tilak gets into Their eyes, and often crevices and grooves are difficult to clean. Plus, I feel that the tilak powder, no matter how fine, is abrasive...like scouring powder. I feel the tamarind past is smooth and is gentle even on painted portions of the deities...
Hare Krsna!
SriRKd -
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Re: Cleaning bathing conch
Thu, July 5, 2007 - 12:46 AMnever tried tamarind paste, it comes as a powder right? I remember reading that either tamarind or chandan should be used with lemon juice, but have always used chandan and do find it gets into the crevaces recently i have been using the chandan as more part of the abishek then wiping them down with a cotton ball soaked in lemon juice and am quite happy with how it turns out but will have to try the tamarind paste.
When i say i use baking soda to clean the silver its actually a chemical reaction where i take a glass bowl line it with tinfoil (shiny side up) and then fill with hot water and then add a few spoons of baking soda to the water, put the silver in then wait 10 mins then rinse off the silver. Not sure how it works but the tarnish somehow bonds to the tinfoil (its noticibly dull after use) I actually got this technique out of one of my chemistry textbooks a few years ago. -
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Re: Cleaning bathing conch
Thu, July 5, 2007 - 3:51 AMnice... I must admit, I'm a freak for using chemicals: all the paraphenalia (brass and copper) get cleaned with brasso and silver (as my deities are small) jewellery silver dip - works a treat. I then wash everything in warm soapy water to get rid of the chemical smell.
Conch shells: I use warm soapy water in a plastic tub, and put it in the microwave... (works a treat) every so often (before big festivals) I'll use a sterilising fluid like the one used on babies bottles.
YS,
Krish.
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