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Saving fire-damaged medals - Rescuing a named Purple Heart group


MWalsh
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A couple weeks ago a friend of mine showed me this sad looking Purple Heart group that he had just picked up. Apparently he had gotten the group from someone who was a relative of the Purple Heart receipient. As the pics show, the medals were quite obviously in a house fire. The only salvation was that someone apparently just could not bear to simply throw them away, even though they were quite heavily fire damaged and by all appearances not possible to restore or salvage. I certainly would not have begrudged them being pitched. Here is what they looked like when I first saw them:

 

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So the group is an offcially hand engraved Purple Heart and Bronze Star, he engraved the date of his wounds (I assume) on the Purple Heart, then also engraved his name on the Good Conduct & Victory Medal too.

 

Some basic research showed he was from western Wisconsin, and a National WW2 Memorial website entry shows that he was apparently an 85th Division GI who fought in Italy. His regiment started a night time river crossing on the May 11th, 1944 date on the medal, I suspect that was where he was wounded. Additional research is pending though.

 

So I decided to see what I could do with these destroyed medals.

 

I soaked them all in individual small bowls of Oxyclean & warm water, thinking maybe that'd lift & loosen the grime, soot, debris. It did OK, it did loosen some, to where some would come off when I brushed with a soft old used toothbrush. However, no matter how long it soaked and how much and how hard I brushed, I just could not get them cleaned off. I then thought "what would take soot from heat & a fire off... what would take soot from heat & a fire off...". OVEN CLEANER!

 

The oven cleaner and a brushing with a soft toohbrush really seemed to do the job. On the Good Conduct, it has some impact but still the medals is fairly dark looking, on the Bronze Star & Victory Medal, well, I was not so happy with how they turned out. All the patina is gone, and I suspect they were laquered or coated with something at the factory, that is all gone now too. They look OK, I guess much better than before, but not what I had hoped. I replaced the ribbons on the Victory Medal, Good Conduct, & Bronze Star, so they now are at least presentable. My hope is that over time, maybe a bit of patina will start to come back. Only time will tell.

 

The Purple Heart, well, I guess you'll just have to see the pics. I replaced the ribbon on it too, as well as th purple center. I used the purple center from the Purple Heart the ribbon came from. The George Washington on the medal is the original one though.

 

Replacing the ribbons by using ribbons off other good condition, serviceable medals was not a cheapo alternative, I would probably not have bothered except that the medals are named. Having to basically tear apart an otherwise perfectly good un-named Purple Heart was not a cheap solution either, but I am glad that I did it. It was worth it to restore the set and also to learn how I could restore a Purple Heart. I guess the base materials on them from the WW2 years was "quality" enough to make them restorable now, even after the severe damage. If I ever came across another fire damaged named Purple Heart, I'd grab it in a heartbeat, as I can now see they are restorable with a little patience, some parts, and some TLC.

 

So with that said, take a look at the finished products.

 

MW

 

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One other thought....

 

I don't know that I would have gone trying what I did on a lightly damaged Pearl Harbor KIA group as an example, not as an experiment anyway. In this case, I figured that the medals were in such bad condition initially that there was no risk of me damaging them any further, so about all I could do was improve on them.

 

It was a good opportunity to test out various things.

 

MW

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Great Job Mike!!!!!

 

What was the process in replacing the purple backing on the heart and the Washington???

 

RON

 

Good question, I should have mentioned that.

 

The purple residue, I think the original center was the plastic type (as opposed to the enamel type), I just took a small paring knife and carefully scrapped off the purple remnants. It was actually fairly brittle stuff, so it came off fairly cleanly and in chunks. That then exposed a very small space between where the GW emblem would have normally rested sort of on top of the purple center. I very carefully inserted my small knife under the GW emblem and very gently applied pressue, very carefully prying up the GW emblem so as not to bend it. I got it loose like that - it sticks into the main medal body via two small pins or studs that are underneath the GW emblem and which go into two small holes in the main medal body. I had to carefully use a needlenose pliers to get the GW emblem all the way off though, being very careful and padding it so as not to leave pliers marks on the edge of the GW emblem. I then disassembled the spare PH, used a small touch of Elmers glue to hold down the replacement purple center, then reinserted the GW emblem - it fits very tightly just as is and is made to be a tight fit.

 

I had disassembled one other old beater un-named WW2 made Purple Heart one other time, so I had an idea on how to successfully (and carefully!) do that part.

 

MW

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Good question, I should have mentioned that.

 

The purple residue, I think the original center was the plastic type (as opposed to the enamel type), I just took a small paring knife and carefully scrapped off the purple remnants. It was actually fairly brittle stuff, so it came off fairly cleanly and in chunks. That then exposed a very small space between where the GW emblem would have normally rested sort of on top of the purple center. I very carefully inserted my small knife under the GW emblem and very gently applied pressue, very carefully prying up the GW emblem so as not to bend it. I got it loose like that - it sticks into the main medal body via two small pins or studs that are underneath the GW emblem and which go into two small holes in the main medal body. I had to carefully use a needlenose pliers to get the GW emblem all the way off though, being very careful and padding it so as not to leave pliers marks on the edge of the GW emblem. I then disassembled the spare PH, used a small touch of Elmers glue to hold down the replacement purple center, then reinserted the GW emblem - it fits very tightly just as is and is made to be a tight fit.

 

I had disassembled one other old beater un-named WW2 made Purple Heart one other time, so I had an idea on how to successfully (and carefully!) do that part.

 

MW

\\

 

 

Thanks Mike

 

I have wondered if the GW was solderd or pressed into place.Also the centers.When I first saw your post I thought maybe the restoration may have used a liquid plactic poured around the GW emblem

 

RD

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\\

Thanks Mike

 

I have wondered if the GW was solderd or pressed into place.Also the centers.When I first saw your post I thought maybe the restoration may have used a liquid plactic poured around the GW emblem

 

RD

 

Nope, just literally pressed into place is all.

 

What I do not know is if this all would have worked on an earlier made enameled center medal. I don't know if one could replace the enamel center with a plastic one. I would suspect that trying to remove the intact enamel center might be much harder than the plastic one, I would guess it'd probably be more brittle... Also, I don't know if the enamel ones were poured or just inserted. I have not resarched enamel manufacture enough to know.

 

MW

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dhcoleterracina

I can't believe its the same group. This issue will come up again, and now someone will have a direction from your work. Although we generally say "leave it alone" when considering a restoration, I like the results.

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Very cool. Nice job and worthy of restoration.

The soldier was obviously very proud of them, and I think he would have wanted them done this way.

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What a fantastic job. Well done. :thumbsup:

 

Now if this comes up again somebody will have a 'how to manual' and a 'go to man'! :w00t:

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