Swarfega

Swarfega (/swɔːrˈfiːɡə/) is a brand of heavy-duty hand cleaner made by Deb Limited, a British company based in Denby, Derbyshire.

It is a gelatinous, thixotropic substance, dark green or orange in colour, which is used to clean grease, oil, printer's ink, or general persistent, hydrophobic dirt from the skin.

[1][2] In 1941, he founded a detergent-sales company, Deb Silkware Protection Ltd., based in Belper, to produce a formulation for extending the life of silk stockings.

The introduction of nylon stockings threatened to render it superfluous; however, Williamson purportedly suggested that mechanics had already found it useful for cleaning their hands.

(The company's name had been changed to Deb Chemical Proprietaries Ltd.) Before Swarfega, mechanics used a variety of harsh home-brewed cleaners such as paraffin (kerosene), sand, and petrol.