There is no "touching up" cast iron sinks.

For some reason it’s not letting me attach photos. 3rd try...

That's use or lose. Love it as is, or as a planter.

It looks pretty good to me. Can you scrub it really hard with Bar Keeper's Friend and other cleaners?

Loved mine in our old house! Scotch Brite green scrub pads and comet.

A friend of mine cleaned up one very well with a good scrubbing with Bar Keeper's friend. Any wear that has gone through the enamel to the cast iron will be more of a problem. For small dings that go all the way through the enamel ,there are cast iron enamel repair kits - google it online. It is hard to get a perfect color match but it will look better than the chips.

After a thorough cleaning, you might want to look into a wax coating (car wax) to keep it clean longer. The wax helps gunk and grossness slide right off and down the drain.

Thanks, all. Those photos were taken after a serious scrubbing. That’s as good as it gets. I’ve tried just about every cleaner including Bon Ami (which is like Bar Keeper’s Friend). And yes, there are specks of the cast iron showing through.

On a thread in Conversation, someone recommended the Kohler Cast Iron cleaner for something else and I noticed that many of the reviews were about usingit on old, discolored sinks, for whatever that's worth.

ETA I doubt anything would completely fix the one in the photo, but it's inexpensive enough to see what it might do.

If that is the scrubbed version, retire it. It’s served its time.

I love those sinks. You can have it reglazed. Maybe in a fun color since it doesn’t sound like it’s your main kitchen sink.

I‘ve read the heavy duty magic erasers and fine steel wool can work to remove stains.

Apply paper towels, spray with diluted bleach and let it work for several hours. It’s a temp solution but since it’s a lost cause anyway there’s nothing to lose.

Unfortunately , no you can,t really have it reglazed. Nobody in the US reporcelains cast iron any moe. There's one place that does steel sinks, but they have something like a seven year wait now. The other places use the same process they use to refinish tubs, which is much too fragile for a kitchen sink.

I’d try a combination of bleach, baking soda, vinegar and very hot/boiling water. It cleans my enamel cast iron pots really well.

I don't think Bon Ami and Bar Keepers Friend are at all similar. But I never get Bon Ami. Its just that Bar Keepers Friend would be pretty tough on the chick on the Bon Ami can.

Agree they aren't the same. Barkeepers Friend is powdered oxalic acid and Bon Ami is powdered limestone. I have found BKF to be great for hard water staining

Here's a reglazed sink.

And here's how you fix it.

Like I said earlier, I’m not wanting it to look like new, just better. The paper towels with bleach did help some. Then I tried my Bon Ami. Then CLR toilet bowl cleaner, and that helped. Guess I’d better find some Bar Keepers Friend. I think the one really dark place is just where the enamel (I guess) is wearing super thin.

Whink works wonders on stains for me...I do see that they've changed the packaging and I have no idea if the formula has changed. It says it's for rust, but in my horrible rental apartment, it took out all sorts of stains...

Also many years ago on a This Old House episode they used car polishing compound and a buffer...if it's very bad, you could try rubbing compound first and then the polishing compound...

I don't know who said nobody in the US refinishes cast iron these days, but that's not true. There are folks out there who do it, but they are few and far between (usually hard to find on Google because they're small businesses), and usually expensive. I'm pretty sure there is one in/near Richmond, VA because I was looking into purchasing a vintage claw foot tub at one time and remember coming across a company that restored the vintage cast iron tubs (this was in 2016/2017 timeframe). I also once saw a DIY refinishing kit online. If you can't find anyone nearby to reglaze it for you, and you're out of other options, maybe the DIY kit would be worth a try. I think it's really hard work though, so something like the Rust-Oleum Tub & Tile kit would be last ditch effort... though I'd probably learn to love the stains before trying to "paint" it.

NO ONE does re-porcelainizing. That involves re-firing the sink at super high temperatures and fusing the porcelain glass to the iron, just as it was produced originally. That is the only durable process.

“Refinishing” involves acid etching it and painting it. It is not a durable process, no matter the advertising that they do to claim that it is. Even low heat cured powder coating is not a durable enough paint process for kitchen sink use. It will peel. Yes, high temp powder coating is used on engine parts. Engine parts aren’t sinks. Powder coating is not meant to stand up to constant water, abrasion, and impacts. It’s a great choice for the EXTERIOR of a sink or tub, to add color. It is not a wear surface.

Thanks, again, for the suggestions and information. The Barkeeper's Friend did improve it. For now I'll probably just learn to love the remaining stains.

I don't know who said nobody in the US refinishes cast iron these days, but that's not true.

I said it and it is true. As live_wire_oak points out, what those places do is not true reporcelaining and that's the only thing suitable for a kitchen sink. You can get away with the fancy paint for a tub, for a while if you are willing to accept that you will need to do it over and over, but that can't stand up to the much greater stress a kitchen sink is subjected to--nobody throws cast iron pans into a bathtub.

Current EPA regs don't allow for true reporcelaining, and anyone who says they do that on CI is fibbing, unless they send it overseas somewhere for the actual work.

I don’t think they were sending them overseas. But I saw photo of them basically sand blasting the white until all the way down to the cast iron and then applied new white coating. I guess this isn‘t “reporcelaining?”

No it’s not. That would require giant kilns and very very high heats to fuse the applied powdered glass into creating the actual vitreous porcelain over cast iron that it becomes. Porcelain is fused glass, which is why it is so durable. That’s what Kohler does when they create new cast iron sinks or tubs. That is what EPA regulations made too difficult and expensive to do safely for small businesses.

At best, they are powder coating, and you get 4-5 years before it has to be pulled out and done again. At the other end is a low grade epoxy that doesn’t last even a year.

https://youtu.be/giFhLJNzKyQ

Gotcha. I can see where a bathtub would last longer with this refinishing treatment vs a kitchen sink. And they were doing a lot of bathtubs. Is there anything that can be done to a sink that’s still in relatively good condition? I have one where someone used too harsh chemicals and/or abrasives and it’s lost it’s shine in some places and those areas tend to stain a little easier. I was hoping to find some sort of sealer to help protect against stains. I read somewhere to use clear car wax but that just didn’t seem like a great idea for the kitchen. Also didn’t seem like that would last very long.

Yeah, it's a problem. Paste wax is pretty much the only way to get the shine back, unfortunately, and of course that's a constant thing. I have used ROG for stains in desperate situations and it does do more than most of the internet solutions, but it's very expensive and even they recommend waxing afterwards to reduce the visibility of the dull spots.

It's a pity you can't just send the sink out for refinishing anymore, but there it is. I have seen the epoxy paint thing used on kitchen sinks, but usually just for making it pretty for a sale. Once the unwary buyer starts using it, they'll soon see.