Bar Keepers Friend.

• Position: Cleaning compounds by Indiana-based Servaas Laboratories

More than a century of cleaning

Legend has it that a Central Indiana chemist in the 1880s developed a revolutionary cleanser. It worked better than anything else on the market.

It was particularly good at cleaning such surfaces as brass, marble, copper and tile, which were dominant in the decor of many of the era's bars and taverns. The chemist, the story goes, would make the rounds of the area's drinking establishments, delivering his unnamed cleaning product in brown paper bags.

He became a familiar face on the bar scene, and a popular one as well, because his product helped keep the places sparkling. So, it's said, the regulars would announce upon his arrival, "Here comes the bar keeper's friend!"

Now, more than a century later, people with tough cleaning jobs still swear by the product that has become known as Bar Keepers Friend. Since the 1950s, it has been a product of Indianapolis-based SerVaas Laboratories. In addition to Bar Keepers Friend, the company markets such related products as Shiny Sinks Plus and Just N' Time, and is venturing into private-label manufacturing of cleansing products for store chains.

What makes Bar Keepers Friend different from such competitors as Comet and Ajax? Check the ingredients. Bar Keepers Friend is powered by oxalic acid, while Comet and Ajax contain different forms of bleach. Bar Keepers Friend is less abrasive, but according to Consumer Reports, is an "excellent cleaner."

In fact, Consumer Reports found Bar Keepers Friend to be on a par with Mr. Clean when it comes to removing baked-on soil, tea stains and other pot stains, and even better at removing rust. That's significant because Mr. Clean otherwise was the magazine's top-ranked regular cleanser--Consumer Reports listed Bar Keepers Friend separately.

Robert Silvers, president of SerVaas Laboratories, says that in spite of its sparkling reputation among people who clean for a living, Bar Keepers Friend was not a huge seller when...