Bedroom fireplace restored but polish coming off - help!

[Sciencebod]

I have a bedroom cast iron fireplace that I have had my decorator strip years of gloss off. He has polished it with some fireplace past/polish - but the problem is this comes off when you rub against it! Have two children with SEN and am really nervous of the black stuff getting on their hands/all over the curtains/walls etc. whilst it looks lovely, is there a paint alternative I can use, and can I paint it on top of this paste/polish stuff?? Any help gratefully received!

I guess that polish is a traditional iron paste (or something like that) that's fireproof and black. If you want just to repaint it, I think you'll have to strip off that polish first, otherwise the paint won't stick properly.

We've sprayed one of our bedroom fireplaces with Rustoleum BBQ and Stove Paint which created a nice black finish, not dead-flat matt but not shiny either. That fireplace is purely decorative nowadays, so using a heat-resistant paint was an overkill, but it was just something we had left over from another DIY project.

I would keep buffing the polish with a dry cloth until it stops coming off, it might take a bit of effort to remove the excess.

Thank you, I’ll keep buffing it for now and see what happens.

It's like shoe polish, so just keep buffing it til it stops coming off.