How to clean your fingernails

[Duncan Grimmond]

Excellent!

[Roger Goldthorpe]

While we are discussing bread I am reminded of the hours spent chewing bread so my father could press the soggy mass into the core of the radiator to stem the leaks. The heat of the radiator would bake the bread to the consistency of iron and weld it in place.
May I suggest that a loaf of bread be added to ones spares list.

[Lowespeed]

I'm sorry Chaps but you obviously not been following the instructions from "The Austin Seven Book" by R.T.Nicholson and I quote:
"If you fancy your hands, cram the nails and quicks with soap before you start working; then the dirt will afterwards wash out with the soap"
Mine you, it then goes on to recommend paraffin or light oil will shift the filth from skin and that Vim (remember that?) is good !

[Duncan Grimmond]

I was told by my mother that Vim and soap was good. There was also a soap bar (probably carbolic) which contained pumice, I've forgotten the trade name. The best I ever found was a product called "Boraxo" , proudly labelled "A twenty mule-team product" that my father-in-law got from work, he was an engineer for the NCB. The mixture of coal dust and grease/oil is notoriously hard to shift. It was a powdered soap presumably with a borax component and some lanolin which was to be used with wet hands and it worked really well leaving the skin soft. I still have a small amount left, though he retired in 1986 IIRC.

[Nick Lettington]

I usually add a large spoonful of sugar to the liquid soap in my hand to add abrasive action... the little plastic pearls are very bad for marine life apparently.

[Parazine]

Years ago, I always used Vim or Ajax to clean hands. Discovering Swarfega was a moment of enlightenment!

[John Mason]

I find warm water, fairy liquid and a nice soft nail brush does the job.

John Mason.