I sit down with a bowl of knobs, cotton gloves (those old brown jersey gloves) and a bottle of BAR KEEPERS FRIEND. In the course of the evening news, I can polish up a half dozen or so. As for the Bakelite and other non-plastic synthetics a good rub with neetsfoot oil has worked well. No particular reason for using neetsfoot oil, I just had some around and used it and it seemed to work well.