Clean Finds the Easy Way continued **

Another way to clean silver artefacts and hammered coins is with a car battery charger.  Put a teaspoon of washing soda in a small plastic container and fill with about an inch of boiling water. Put a stainless steel spoon in the red positive !st century Roman trumpet brooch Cleaned and waxedclip and immerse it in the solution. Put the item to be cleaned in the black negative clip and immerse it in the solution, about an inch and a half away from the spoon. Switch the battery charger on and watch it bubble around the item, lifting the contamination off the silver.  Slide the item you are cleaning closer to the spoon, you will notice an increase in activity in the cleaning process. Move the item away, you will see a decrease. It is important to know and to use this when cleaning very delicate items. Only leave items being cleaned in the solution for 2 minutes at the most. Switch off the charger and remove the item from the solution. Clean with warm soapy water using a soft toothbrush and dry off.

For a final polish, dip artefacts in silver dip for 1 minute, wash in warm soapy water and dry off. Polish with a soft cloth. To tone and highlight the type and legend on silver coins, use the same battery charger solution you used to clean the coin with, but put the stainless steel spoon into the black negative clip, and the coin in the red positive clip. Place both back into the same solution making sure you can see the coin clearly. Turn the battery charger on, keeping your hand on the switch so that you can turn it off again quickly. Turn the battery charger off as soon as the coin goes black this will literally take 1 or 2 seconds at most. Remove the coin and put a small amount of any household oven and grill cleaning paste onto it. Gently rub the paste onto one side of the coin, then wash it off and check the coin. Repeat this exercise until you highlight the type and legend, toning down the black deposit, to your satisfaction. Then repeat on the other side.
DO NOT dip silver COINS in silver dip, or polish them

Cleaning Finds 2
Cleaning Finds 3
Cleaning Finds 4
Cleaning Finds 5

 

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