Shell Fragment Restoration

[Dharmacy]

I have been going through a bucket of shell fragments I have dug and cleaning them up before they rust away to nothing. So far I am pleased with the results of the cleaning and treating with rust converter. The first ones are three Polygonal Shell frags from Kennesaw Mt. The other is part of a Hotchkiss nose recovered from Johnston's River Line. It shows the charge cavity and the threading for the fuse pretty good.

D.

 

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[Joe G from Md]

They are nice D, how do you clean them up, I have a few left like to save them.

 

[devldog]

Very nice Dharmacy. I have a piece of Hotchkiss shell almost exactly like the one you have pictured that came from the same battle. This was my first relic find ever found in 1969 with a WWII minesweeper at age 13. I watched some videos on treating iron and CW artillery shells and shell frags. I treated them with the product called Gemplers and was pleased with the way they turned out. It treats the iron from the inside out preserving them. The iron does turn black in a low lustre finish if that doesn't bother you and you can still see a lot of detail on the pieces without any further of rust occurring. I even treated my 12 pound shell with this. I'll try to post some pic's later today. Thanks for posting the pic's. Great pieces of History there.

 

[Dharmacy]

They are nice D, how do you clean them up, I have a few left like to save them.

On these, I just cleaned off the loose rust and scale and wire brushed them by hand. I then treated them with an aerosol rust converter by Rustoleum that I got at Home Depot. I gives them a nice matte black finish, but for some reason they look more brown in the pics.

D.

 

[Dharmacy]

Very nice Dharmacy. I have a piece of Hotchkiss shell almost exactly like the one you have pictured that came from the same battle. This was my first relic find ever found in 1969 with a WWII minesweeper at age 13. I watched some videos on treating iron and CW artillery shells and shell frags. I treated them with the product called Gemplers and was pleased with the way they turned out. It treats the iron from the inside out preserving them. The iron does turn black in a low lustre finish if that doesn't bother you and you can still see a lot of detail on the pieces without any further of rust occurring. I even treated my 12 pound shell with this. I'll try to post some pic's later today. Thanks for posting the pic's. Great pieces of History there.

It seems that there were a lot of Hotchkiss pieces around that area. The product from Rustoleum I used has a nice black finish as well, but it came out more brown in the pics.

D.

 

[Davers]

They look great , guess I been lucky the ' few' frags I have dug came out pretty nice 'think ' a few were found by past hunters and thrown back down as they were close to the surface .

I prefer a Clear-coat but any type of preservation is a good & good looking thing.
Davers