Don in SJ
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- May 20, 2005
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Yesterday I went to a site that has been producing artifacts and coins over a 4 century time frame but mostly early 1800's. Last week my son in the area I hunted got a nice 1836 Large Cent and a not so nice Flying Eagle cent. This is the same area that two weeks ago I got a 1787 Connecticut State copper.
The downside to the site is that a large percentage of the copper/brass items found have a hard, cement like coating on them, which does not easily come of, if at all. Back in March I found two 1820's Naval buttons that were encrusted with the cement like crud and Peroxide only removed the dirt but did not touch the crud. So I literally picked off as much as I could with many toothpicks, and did not really enjoy that type of cleaning.
Well, on this hunt, I got a Pewter button, a Musketball and one of those encrusted buttons. Since I could see a design on the button, I knew I would have to try cleaning it to see how nice or ugly it was, also I could see on the rim, some hints of Gilt and that meant maybe a decent button was under that crud.
Last week, while straightening out a cabinet full of cleansers and stuff in the garage I found a bottle of Naval Jelly that I did not know I had, it must have been from my late Dad's stuff, which meant it was from the 1980's at the latest.
I decided to try the Naval Jelly on the button, since I know a lot of the relic hunters use it to clean their gold gilt buttons, but not anything else.
After the normal Peroxide cleaning, which did remove the dirt, but did not touch the cement-like crud. I started to brush on the Naval Jelly. I was surprised that the crud did seem to melt away into a gray slurry and underneath that gray crud, a lot of gilt was starting to appear. I continued on cleaning with several short applications of the Naval Jelly and I was pleasantly surprised on how well it did work on the gilted portions of the button.
I did noticed that on ungilted areas, the copper/brass, turned more reddish, like nickels do when cleaned with some methods or exposed to wet, acidic ground conditions. So, I do see why you have to be careful using the Naval Jelly and not leave it on too long and not to use in on items that are not gold gilt.
Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome, yes it has corrosion, which you cannot do anything about other than soak in distilled water and hope the corrosion stops. But one ugly button is now a lot nicer looking. I might go back now and try the Naval Jelly on those Naval buttons I spent hours picking with a toothpick to remove the crud, maybe they will improve with this treatment.
Don
The downside to the site is that a large percentage of the copper/brass items found have a hard, cement like coating on them, which does not easily come of, if at all. Back in March I found two 1820's Naval buttons that were encrusted with the cement like crud and Peroxide only removed the dirt but did not touch the crud. So I literally picked off as much as I could with many toothpicks, and did not really enjoy that type of cleaning.
Well, on this hunt, I got a Pewter button, a Musketball and one of those encrusted buttons. Since I could see a design on the button, I knew I would have to try cleaning it to see how nice or ugly it was, also I could see on the rim, some hints of Gilt and that meant maybe a decent button was under that crud.
Last week, while straightening out a cabinet full of cleansers and stuff in the garage I found a bottle of Naval Jelly that I did not know I had, it must have been from my late Dad's stuff, which meant it was from the 1980's at the latest.
I decided to try the Naval Jelly on the button, since I know a lot of the relic hunters use it to clean their gold gilt buttons, but not anything else.
After the normal Peroxide cleaning, which did remove the dirt, but did not touch the cement-like crud. I started to brush on the Naval Jelly. I was surprised that the crud did seem to melt away into a gray slurry and underneath that gray crud, a lot of gilt was starting to appear. I continued on cleaning with several short applications of the Naval Jelly and I was pleasantly surprised on how well it did work on the gilted portions of the button.
I did noticed that on ungilted areas, the copper/brass, turned more reddish, like nickels do when cleaned with some methods or exposed to wet, acidic ground conditions. So, I do see why you have to be careful using the Naval Jelly and not leave it on too long and not to use in on items that are not gold gilt.
Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome, yes it has corrosion, which you cannot do anything about other than soak in distilled water and hope the corrosion stops. But one ugly button is now a lot nicer looking. I might go back now and try the Naval Jelly on those Naval buttons I spent hours picking with a toothpick to remove the crud, maybe they will improve with this treatment.
Don
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congrats
The digs look nice and the button turned out great 
