Removing old polish residue

Does anyone have any suggestions for removing accretions of metal polish
residue from metal surfaces.  A large collection we just received was
"cleaned up" at some point and most of the nooks and crannies on the
surfaces are full of white polish residue which I assume is the abrasive
from the polish.  I have tried several things: various solvents to
remoisten it and loosen it up, repolishing (but am having trouble
getting down into fine crevices) and finally, mechanical removal which
takes forever.  Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Jessie Johnson
Texas Memorial Museum
Materials Conservation Lab

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 7:68
                  Distributed: Tuesday, March 29, 1994
                        Message Id: cdl-7-68-003
                                  ***