Plumbata
Bronze Member
Hello friends, I'm hoping someone can help provide suggestions for stabilizing these Ancient Celtic artifacts. They are "ritually killed/sacrificed" weapons that came from a warrior's grave in the Carpathian Basin region of the southwestern tip of modern Ukraine, according to the collector I obtained them from, and can be rather accurately dated to no later than 70 BC, when the adjacent fortified village was sacked, burned and abandoned.
Anyway, there certainly is some good iron underneath the rust, but the rust is thick and constitutes much what is left of the identifying features (what's left of the small crossguard, raised rib on sword, etc.) so I'd like to figure out how to stabilize the artifacts in such a way that prevents the rust from bubbling and flaking off. Should I soak everything in a vat of beeswax? Treat with tannic acid solution? Melted Renaissance wax? I'm not concerned about the color changing, so am open to pretty much anything that will likely work. Thanks for your help!
Anyway, there certainly is some good iron underneath the rust, but the rust is thick and constitutes much what is left of the identifying features (what's left of the small crossguard, raised rib on sword, etc.) so I'd like to figure out how to stabilize the artifacts in such a way that prevents the rust from bubbling and flaking off. Should I soak everything in a vat of beeswax? Treat with tannic acid solution? Melted Renaissance wax? I'm not concerned about the color changing, so am open to pretty much anything that will likely work. Thanks for your help!
