What is whiting, used for the cleaning of copper?

Question

There was a post, saying to clean copper, make a paste of whiting and metholayted spirits

Answer 1

Whiting is another name for calcium carbonate:
http://www.texaspottery.com/acatalog/Whiting__Calcium_Carbonate_.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_carbonate

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Answer 2

Forget about it, just grab a lemon cut in half, grab one of the halfs and rub hard into the copper it'll come up clean and bright. Jif (bottled lemon juice) would do at a pinch in a cotton pad too.

Answer 3

Plain ketchup will remove tarnish from copper too. Rinse thoroughly.

Other recipes for copper polish: http://www.everbrite.net/copper_cleaner.htm
http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=48218