Cleaning and restoring a cast iron fireplace

I have recently bought a repossessed house and it has a lovely but very abused cast iron fireplace in the living room I have cleaned it with white spirit and bought all the things I have read about to restore it....wire wool, lint free cloth, metal polish, black polish etc... The fireplace is mainly black with silver accents, however I have noticed that there is blacking on the silver accents, I have tried to remove it with both the polish and with white spirit but it isn't shifting, is this something I will have to live with or is there a way to remove or can I use a silver paint to restore?

Many thanks with any help.

Amy

Amy - it's very likely your silver accents are simply the cast iron burnished to a shine ... a very common technique. To refurbish these use a couple of grades of emery cloth (medium, fine, very fine) - emery cloth is metalwork's answer to glasspaper (mistakenly called sandpaper). Do not be tempted to use glasspaper! You can readily obtain emery cloth in B&Q or similar.

Once you've established a smooth surface polish with Brasso ... that'll give the shine. Then treat the whole job with Zebo (or Zebrite): tip - use a bristle scrubbing brush to apply then buff with a lint-free rag. Always wear gloves to prevent stained hands.

Don't apply any paint if you intend to use the fireplace for a 'blaze' as it'll burn and smell.