Cleaning battlefield relics: medals

[M-16]

Hi,

I recently got hold on some german medals (please ignore that) wich has been dug up. I have searched high and low to find a good way to clean them. But no luck so I thought I turn to your expertise.

As I said please ignore the german medals just posted them so you would get a sence on the condition. Also if someone has a good answer I am sure many could use that information!

There are some light rust and dirt on them. The bigger medals has silver finish on Brass core, is there a way to clean them without damage the finish?

 

Thanks!

[doyler]

May not be able to clean them with oput damaging the finnish thats left.Possibley a cleaning soultion from a jeweler or jewelry cleaner would work.Soak it in the soultion and use a soft nylon brush(old tooth brush works well).There is a product called evapo-rust.I have used it and it works well but will remove the entire finnish.

 

RD

[Bob Hudson]

Since the topic is preservation, the type of material shown is okay. I think your goal should be to halt the spread of rust to prevent further decay. The basic way is to scrape of the rust and then treat with tannic acid. If you do a google search you'll find lots of tips on that including this article: http://www.ehow.com/how_8202974_remove-rust-artifacts.html

[M-16]

Thanks guys, I will do some more research and hopefully I manage to clean them.