I don't know if anyone has every tried this, but for those of you that haven't - here is an excellent tip for scrubbing through tough stains in sarbloh bhandey.
I live in Northern BC, Canada where it is very difficult to get shiny, clean sarbloh bhande like sangat in other areas (especially in Toronto). Whenever I do get a hold of new bhande, they are extremely (and I mean extremely) difficult to clean. They have a terrible sticky residue on them that sticks to just about everything, and underneath are terribly dark stains. I have literally never seen sarbloh bhande in such harsh condition and I have seen my fair share of dirty sarbloh bhande over the past decade. No matter how much detergent, lemon juice, citric acid and elbow grease I use, it never seems to come of completely until many, many days later of constantly trying. Even leaving it soaked overnight in citric acid doesn't do the job alone either. But,
SOS scrubbing sponges certainly do.
I just soak my sarbloh bhande overnight in a bit of citric acid and water, which kind of softens the jangaal and the next morning, I sprinkle some Comet cleaning powder on to it and scrub with the SOS sponge. Even with just very, very light scrubbing, all of the jangaal comes off in just seconds which makes the sarbloh bhande shiny, clean and as good as new. I then just re-wash it as I always do (with a normal steel wool sponge + dishwash soap and citric acid combination) because I'm a bit OCD and don't want to use my bhande without doing that step as well.
SOS scrubbing sponges are available in lots of stores around here like Costco, Walmart, Staples and I'm sure they must be available throughout Canada and other countries as well. I don't use it on a daily basis as I find that after just one use, the SOS sponge gets tiny, small and not as effective, so it has to be thrown out. Using a brand new SOS sponge everyday might get costly overtime too. I only use it with new sarbloh bhande or sarbloh bhande my kids ruined somehow.
I'm sure lots of sangat around the world must use this tip often as it is so effective, but I had never heard of it before my husband randomly suggested it to me one day after he used those to clean some dirty pipes. It would have been so helpful to know and would have definitely saved me so much time and stress in the past trying to get my bhande good and shiny as new. I wish someone told me about it, so I am here to tell anyone else on this forum who might need the help too.
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥