30sVintage - What you have is a mix of leftover furniture polish and dust, baked together. Have you tried mild soap and water? If that doesn't work, try mineral spirits on a soft cloth. Wipe on a generous amount, let it sit and then wipe it off with a clean cloth. Test in a hidden area, but mineral spirits usually doesn't affect the finish of a piece. As you found, anything oily just spreads the oily dirt around. The mineral spirits can dissolve old oils and grime.

I moved into my home last May and I had not unpacked my dishes yet. I bought plastic dinnerware in the meantime because I noticed shortly after moving in, that the black dust was covered the paper plates and plastic cups. After that I realized it was everywhere. I painted a wall in a utility closet that I don’t use. But when I opened the doors to vacuum the floor, the painted wall had a large area of black. As though it went in between the two bifold doors and settled. I took out the bathroom vent from the ceiling to clean it. About six inches of the black soot along with everything else that would normally be trapped in a furnace or return filter. I had a home inspection done before buying the house so I assumed that person checked the hvac etc. . Everything is located in my attic except my outside central air unit which I used for 3 months. No filter in my furnace. Also, my dog sitter said he changed the return vent filter, (odd I thought), but I took that filter out, black as can be. Which I expected, so I brought a plastic bag up the 8 foot ladder with me because i didn’t want the black going everywhere. So up I go to the furnace to put a filter in, disgusted with the thought that I and my 3 bulldogs, who already had allergies, were breathing this in. I also started getting increasingly achy the longer I lived here. And about 6 weeks after moving in, I took my dogs to the vet because they were all losing an exceptional amount of hair. I got the courage up to look into the duct work. An inch at least if the black soot covered it. I’m sure this is what is causing my “black buildup” which is the same as what everyone has described. I’m sure all the vents are filled with this crap. I’ve taken two down and was coughing the entire day. I’m having an hvac company come to clean it all out. I feel so bad for everyone else that has this problem. I still have not put my dishes in the cabinets and I now keep anything that I eat off of wrapped up and I check it before I eat off of anything. I got a very large air purifier two weeks ago and I checked it. So black that I can’t even clean it.

We've had this problem for years on every single hinge in our house. It's definitely not graphite, it's the actual hinge grinding itself to dust. Our house is only 15 years old, and some of our hinges have worn down 1/4" or more. We haven't found a lubricant that works more than a few weeks. The black metal dust has permanently stained the carpet and woodwork, and needs to be scrubbed off the trim every couple months or so (photos show approx 3 months worth of powder on lubricated hinges). I've never lived in a house where I had to lubricate hinges every few weeks and clean black dust off the walls and carpets from worn hinges. I feel like it's just the result of really poor manufacturing standards in the hardware industry during the era our home was built (around 2002) . It would be a pain to replace all our hinge hardware (70-something hinges), and who knows if the replacements would be the same.

Windex and a microfiber! We have t-o-n-s of black painted surfaces (high-gloss doors, high-gloss cabs, satin finish island in kitchen) and little (and big) kids and Windex works like a charm. Good luck!