Cleaning slate fireplace

[Snugglepiggy]

Not sure if I'm in the right topic but we recently moved and acquired a wood burner with a natural slate hearth ,which I have wiped over with a damp cloth a few times and it's been fine.But suddenly the other day some dark marks that look almost greasy ,but aren't have appeared ,and I can't understand why.There was a tiny bit of wash up -Eco friendly -in the water but don't think that should have caused it.Other websites I've looked on have suggested making a paste of either lemon or hydrogen peroxide with bicarbonate of soda to remove marks but has anyone else done this with good results.I'm wary of doing the wrong thing and doing more damage.Any one with a similar experience who can help? thanks

I had the same problem with my slate hearth, nothing like vinegar, or bicarb worked. Didn't do any damage just had no effect.

Anyway after about a year of a marked hearth! I asked a stove fitter what to do and the answer is to use wd40. Spay the hearth with wd40 and just rub it in with some kitchen roll. Mine has come up like new.

We have the same issue. WD40 sounds like a good idea. I hadn't thought of that. In fact I seem to recall in the 'old days' they used to put some sort of oil on slate hearths to clean them.

I suspect the oil just makes the slate appear uniformly darker and essentially covers up and merges the dark oily spots that are most likely from bits of oily soot full of resin that fell out of the wood burning stove.

We used to use mayonnaise to clean our slate and marble. Came up a treat.

I always use olive oil!