A little off-season cleaning.....before and after.

goldrush00013

If you recall I found this ID badge back in December. Link if you don't recall.

I decided to see if I could clean her up a bit today, since I was off work and still snowbound.
Had heard people talk about heating hydrogen peroxide till it boils in a microwave oven to clean some finds.
I found my peroxide and heated it in a micro-safe dish till it boiled for a good minute. I then slid the badge into the hot solution and watched her fizz for a good 15 minutes. Walked away and left it to cool still in the peroxide.
Twenty minutes later it was cooled but still slightly fizzing. I washed it in water and was pleasantly surprised to see...






HH

DesertRat

Wow!

That cleaned up very nicely!

phut

<< <i>That cleaned up very nicely! >>


Sure did.

lordmarcovan

A vast improvement.

I only recently started using the microwaved-peroxide treatment, myself.

Omega

Very nice results!

SilverDreams

Those are nice results. I need to try that myself.

StrikeOutXXX

For copper/brass/bronze items, I think the peroxide method is my favorite - had great results in the past. I mentioned it to a member on the coin forum last year, and he modified it somewhat. He said the 3% solution found in most drug stores worked ok, but he found some 30% solution in a beauty supply store and said it worked even better. I think he was taking green gunk off of old cents. I still haven't tracked down the 30%, but may be worth investigating.

For silver, my favorite method is still the boiling water in a pyrex dish lined with tin foil with a little Arm and Hammer washing soda or oxy clean if you can't find that.

Great results

DNADave

Be careful 30% Hydrogen Peroxide will "burn" your skin severly. It will cause painful, white blistering areas upon contact.

CROCKofCOINS

<< <i>Be careful 30% Hydrogen Peroxide will "burn" your skin severly. It will cause painful, white blistering areas upon contact. >>



Thanks Dave!!!

More info: http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/~hmc/hsci/chemicals/hydrogen_peroxide.html

Jerry

lordmarcovan

We used to use 60% solution in a textile mill I worked in. I once had a tiny, tiny droplet hit my arm- no bigger than a sneeze droplet. I had a little white burn there, just as if a spark from a welder's torch had hit me. It was so tiny that it didn't hurt much, but you can bet that if I had gotten a bigger splash, I would not have been a happy camper. And getting some in your eyes could blind you.

I just use the standard drugstore/household 3% solution around here. 30% might be interesting to try, but he's definitely got a point when it comes to warning about that. The 3% is mostly harmless but you definitely wanna know what you're doin' when you mess with 30%.


PS- John, I say again- that artifact cleaned up really nice. I like the way the original dirt/patina remained in the letters, though, to sort of highlight them. It was a supercool find when you dug it, but now it's a treasure, and I would venture to say, almost a museum-quality piece.