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WWI Officer Cover Emblem


Brig
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Here is a piece I recently picked up in trade. Sadly the screwpost is missing, but it displays well for now. The rear oxidation has been going on for awhile, any idea how to clean it without damage, preferably without a wire brush?

Beast_Front.JPG

Beast_Rear.JPG

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Try a piece of green scotchpad (the kind used for washing dishes and pans): saturate that with oil WD-40 so you can do "wet sanding" - that lets you scrub very hard without scratching the metal. Museums will use a scapel and microscope to chip away at it, but the wet sanding works well, especially on the back. Just this afternoon Ihad to remove some from a WWII navigator's watch. It is apparently a plated brass case so there were small areas of verdigris in the areas where the watch band attaches to it. It was too tight an area to use a scotch pad so I used a small bronze bore brush and WD40. The bronze brushes are nice because it is a fairly soft metal and much more gentle than as steel brush.

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There may be some commercial jewelry cleaners avaialble at a jewelry store that will work,Some you will soak the piece to remove or soften,A friend has used crest tooth paste on occasion with a soft nylon brush,often the corrosion has already eaten into or through the finnish.This may be the case on the back of your insinia.

 

At any rate thats a sweet find and an impressive bird,

 

RON

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teufelhunde.ret

Tim - a great example with allot of character & patina... regarding the verdigris problems - I do not recommend you follow some of the solutions found here on the Forum to stopping this bacterial issue. During my years involved in professional numismatics, I found the only suitable way of prevention and conservation of the "Bronze Disease" problem - is found here: http://www.classicalcoins.com/bronze_disease.html Many of the methods you read about here for cleaning or restoring are not suitable for these emblems and will simply create more problems than resolve. The whole idea is to stop it without turning it into a ugly blackened mess devoid of its attributed character and aged patina qualities. It would take many years to restore these aged qualities - even then not to the point where a trained eye would not comment "its been messed with" BTW, I see no problem with finding a "donor" emblem for a new screw-post - any silversmith or goldsmith can readily restore it and will actually enhance its value. My two cents... ;) s/f Darrell

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